Opposition alliance to begin talks for choosing joint candidate
ANKARA
The six-party opposition alliance has decided to begin internal consultations for naming the opposition’s joint presidential candidate who will run against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Türkiye’s one of the most critical elections slated to take place this spring.
The leaders of the six political parties held a nine-hour meeting on Jan. 5 and announced the decisions taken in a joint written statement that discloses the steps to be taken in the coming weeks.
“We have decided to launch consultations within the party chairpersons for determining the joint candidate,” read the statement.
In addition, the leaders have also decided to intensify the works of a six-way commission that was established for election safety both during the voting and counting processes. They also decided to launch a technical work on how to garner a constitutional majority at the parliament.
The opposition alliance is planning to name its presidential candidate following the announcement of the Joint Policy Document and the Road Map, which will be publicized through a massive meeting on Jan. 30. The first document covers nine main policy areas, including economy, justice, foreign policy, education, health and others, while the latter explains how these policies will be implemented.
“With these two documents, the architecture of the political cooperation between our parties will be completed to a great extent,” the joint statement underlined, recalling the leaders have already announced their agreement for replacing the current executive-presidential system with the strengthened parliamentary system.
Leaders voice support for Istanbul mayor
According to the statement, the leaders have also discussed current political matters during the meeting, including a court decision against Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, who is at risk of losing his job. Blaming the politicized judicial system for the decision against İmamoğlu, the leaders said they would continue to be in solidarity and stand against this sort of political engineering ahead of the elections.
On the government’s proposal for amending the constitution to remove all the obstacles before women wearing headscarf in private and public areas, the opposition accused Erdoğan of trying to exploit such an important issue as a tool to use during the election campaign.
“If the government is sincere, it should consider the proposals to be tabled by the opposition without any prejudices and lend support for the legislation,” it said.
The six-party alliance comprises the Republican People’s Party (CHP), the İYİ (Good) Party, the Democrat Party, the Felicity Party, the Future Party and the Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA).
