CHP leader says Davutoğlu should urge president to unblock process

ISTANBUL

A hand out made available by the Republican People's Party (CHP) press office show CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu holding a press conference at the party headquarters in Ankara on August 13, 2015. AFP Photo

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu should call on the president to exhaust all avenues in the search for a coalition government, Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has said.

“Mr. Davutoğlu returned the mandate. Accordingly, what the customs require needs to be done. That is, the process for forming a government has not ended yet,” Kılıçdaroğlu told reporters late Aug. 20, a few hours after Davutoğlu’s last-ditch call for Turkey’s political parties to agree on a working government to take the country to an early election.

A deadline to form a coalition will expire on Aug. 23, after which President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan could call a snap election. 

“Mr. President is blocking this process. It falls on Mr. Davutoğlu to make a call on Mr. President and voice an appeal to unblock this process,” Kılıçdaroğlu added.

Davutoğlu formally abandoned efforts to find a junior coalition partner for his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) on Aug. 18, more than two months after it lost its overall majority for the first time since coming to power in 2002. 

Turkey’s politicians have until Aug. 23 to agree a working government or else Erdoğan could call for an interim, power-sharing cabinet to lead the country to a new election, which would be expected to be held in November. 

“I am ready to sit down and talk at any time, as long as we find a solution in parliament. The possibility of a coalition is no longer available so instead of blaming each other, let’s form a government,” Davutoğlu told a news conference in Ankara. 

“If that first option fails, and the president calls for a snap election, I urge all political parties to take part in this election government in line with the spirit of ... the constitution,” he said. 

An interim “election government” would see power shared between four political parties with deep ideological divides, a scenario likely to lead to stagnation in policy making. Forming such a cabinet is uncertain as two parties, the CHP and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), have said they will not take part.