Opposition alliance to meet on Jan 26 for talks
ANKARA
The six-party opposition alliance will hold its next meeting on Jan. 26, days after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan signaled May 14 as the potential date for the simultaneous presidential and parliamentary polls.
The Nation Alliance will meet at the İYİ (Good) Party headquarters, where the party chair, Meral Akşener, will host the leaders.
Akşener met Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and Temel Karamollaoğlu of the Felicity Party to discuss the agenda of the next week’s meetings on Jan. 20. No statements were made following the meetings.
The meeting has become even more important after Erdoğan signaled Türkiye will hold the elections on May 14 instead of June 18. The opposition alliance has yet to agree on who will be the joint candidate against Erdoğan.
Kılıçdaroğlu has earlier stated that the alliance will choose its joint candidate after the announcement of the joint government program on Jan. 30. However, there is growing pressure on the opposition to accelerate the process for the selection of the candidate.
During their latest meeting in early January, the opposition leaders announced that they agreed to ponder over the joint candidate. It is not yet sure whether these deliberations will start during the Jan. 26 meeting of the alliance.
Meanwhile, the CHP held its Party Assembly meeting under the leadership of Kılıçdaroğlu on Jan. 20. One of the items of the meetings is believed to be the selection process of the presidential candidate.
