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CHP candidate İnce promises ‘different tomorrow’ at final rally on eve of elections
CHP candidate İnce promises ‘different tomorrow’ at final rally on eve of elections
The Republican People’s Party (CHP) presidential candidate Muharrem İnce concluded his election campaign with a landmark rally in Istanbul on June 23, promising a “different tomorrow” on the eve of Turkey’s most fiercely contested elections in years. Click through for the story in photos…
After mega meetings in İzmir and Ankara over the last two days, hundreds of thousands packed the vast Maltepe shoreside on the Asian side of Istanbul for the main opposition CHP candidate Muharrem İnce’s rally.
İnce claimed that five million people had surged to the Istanbul rally despite what his supporters slammed on social media as “disruptions by the government,” such as the cancellation of public ferry rides and fewer than normal public buses on the streets.
During the rally, İnce painted a bleak picture of Turkey if President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan wins the elections, saying its currency would remain weak, prices high and the issue of 3.5 million Syrian refugees unsolved.
"But if İnce wins, it will not just be İnce who wins... 80 million people will win! Turkey will win!" said the CHP candidate, who boasted of holding 107 rallies in the last 50 days.
İnce slammed the media, singling out the public broadcaster TRT, for not broadcasting most of his rallies. “We will immediately work on legislative regulations to fix this partisan media,” he said.
For most of the rest of his speech, İnce repeated his election vows, starting from his promise to make the judiciary independent and unbiased again and ending with his promise to accelarate Turkey’s accession process with the EU.
After thanking all his supporters during their interest throughout the campaign, İnce said: “You, those who fill up the squares; refresh your hopes, tomorrow will be a very different day.”
Turks vote on June 24 in snap twin presidential and parliamentary elections called by Erdoğan one-and-a-half years ahead of schedule, with the president seeking a first round victory for a new mandate and a strong parliamentary majority.
But the emergence of the energetic İnce as candidate for the CHP and a wide-based opposition alliance have made the elections tighter than many analysts -- and likely Erdoğan -- envisaged.
Photos: Anadolu Agency, AFP, Reuters, Associated Press and Demirören News Agency
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