Turkish elections a choice between ‘haraam and halal’: CHP leader

ISTANBUL

CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu was in Ankara March 19, doing the rounds with Mansur Yavaş, his party’s mayoral candidate for Ankara. AA Photo

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu was in Ankara March 19, doing the rounds with Mansur Yavaş, his party’s mayoral candidate for the Turkish capital.

Kılıçdaroğlu said the March 30 local elections would be a race between “haram and halal,” referring to the graft probe surrounding the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Haram and halal refers to “banned” and “permitted” according to Islamic law.

Yavaş is challenging the incumbent AKP candidate Melih Gökçek, who has been holding the Ankara mayoralty since 1994.

“Gökçek is going and Mansur is coming,” Kılıçdaroğlu told a crowd in the city’s Tuzluçayır Square. “Mayor Mansur is saying he will administrate well. We will vote either for halal or for haram.”

However, speaking at his own rally in the western city of Edirne, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said he was “not busy” with the CHP or the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) anymore, saying he was instead occupied with taking on the “the big boss who is holding the strings.” Erdoğan was referring to U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, who he claims is behind the corruption probes.

Meanwhile, the CHP’s Istanbul mayoral candidate, Mustafa Sarıgül, has vowed to keep the metro open all night if he is voted in.

 “Public services should continue for 24 hours. We are getting many complaints about this and we want the metro to work every hour between midnight and 6 a.m,” he told reporters.

Sarıgül is challenging the AKP’s candidate Kadir Topbaş, who is running for his third term as Istanbul mayor.