İYİ Party leader acknowledges election defeat
ISPARTA
İYİ (Good) Party leader Meral Akşener has admitted defeat in the recent election amid ongoing debates about the opposition's vote rates and potential failures.
“We lost the election. Mr. [President Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan and his friends won. We've lost it... We can't get results by questioning the electorate, our beloved nation, with a disrespectful language,” Akşener stated, addressing attendees at a festival in the southern province of Isparta on July 29.
"In the face of the people's choice, I do not look guilty, but I salute them. The people told us to stay in the opposition in this election, as in 2018. What is the opposition? It is the spokesperson of the people. We will control the government on your behalf and express its deficiencies," she added.
While acknowledging defeat, Akşener assured her party's commitment to continuing as a strong opposition force. "What we will do now, as the İYİ Party, is to walk the path with the morality and decency of being useful, which will lead to the local elections that I started from here and the general elections after the local elections," she stated.
Akşener's remarks came following a speech by the Nation Alliance's presidential candidate, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who also spoke about the election results.
"Twenty-five million people of the state voted for democracy. If 48 percent voted for it, would you consider it a defeat?" Kılıçdaroğlu, the leader of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), questioned during an interview with private television HaberTürk.
Acknowledging their shortcomings, Kılıçdaroğlu admitted that the CHP's votes were low in small villages and towns.
"There are multiple reasons why we didn't win... Our votes are low in small villages or towns. This fault is ours," he said.
