CHP hopeful for renewed partnership with İYİ Party for local polls

ANKARA

The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has expressed its hope for a renewed partnership with the İYİ (Good) Party for the upcoming municipal elections.

“As the word ‘alliance’ is expired, I prefer to use ‘cooperation.’ We can cooperate in specific electoral zones. I believe we can overcome many difficulties with [İYİ Party leader Meral] Akşener,” CHP Chairman Özgür Özel told in a televised interview late on Nov. 23.

“To this end, I will do whatever I have to do.”

The CHP and the İYİ Party were the engines of a six-party alliance that ran against the People’s Alliance of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) in the May parliamentary and presidential elections. Following the defeat of the opposition’s joint candidate, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Akşener said her İYİ Party will run individually in the local elections to be held in March 2024.

Özel suggested that a partnership between two opposition parties would be useful to win the mayoral races in big metropolitans, such as Istanbul and Ankara, the way they did in 2019. Ekrem İmamoğlu and Mansur Yavaş had won the elections after being nominated as the joint candidate of the opposition parties.

However, Akşener keeps underlining that the İYİ Party will nominate its candidates in all the country's 81 provinces without any compromise.

“When it comes to local polls, we all together have responsibility. If I don’t win, if you don’t win, if we can’t win, who is going to win? Recep Tayyip Erdoğan," Özel said.

In the meantime, Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavaş had a meeting with Akşener late on Nov. 23. Although there were no statements about the content, it is believed that the two leaders discussed the upcoming local polls.