CHP head expresses desire for sole power without presidential mandate

İZMİR – Doğan News Agency

DHA photo

Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has expressed his desire to form a single-party government through the votes of Turkish citizens, regardless of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s initiative to give the mandate if the CHP does not gain a majority of the vote in the upcoming Nov. 1 election.

“I have been traveling through Turkey to visit each and every corner of the country. I want to get authorized [to form a government] by the votes of the peoples of Turkey, not by the palace,” said Kılıçdaroğlu, speaking at an election rally in the Aegean province of İzmir on Oct. 30. Kılıçdaroğlu’s reference to the presidential palace was an apparent expression of his desire for the CHP to garner the majority of the vote in the Nov. 1 election so as to not need Erdoğan’s authorization to form a government.

Kılıçdaroğlu said Turkey had been through hard times and that it was experiencing one of the deepest crises in the history of the republic.

“Who is governing the country now is unclear,” he added.

Kılıçdaroğlu stated at a separate rally in the province that great pressure was on media outlets critical of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, recalling the recent police raid on dailies Bugün and Millet and private broadcasters Bugün TV and Kanaltürk over a court ruling, which placed the media outlets owned by Koza İpek Holding under the management of newly appointed trustees. 

“Police raid [dailies and TV stations] and shut down their live broadcasts. Their journalists are being threatened with death. The citizens’ right to receive news freely is being restricted,” he said.