A much-anticipated election program of the six-party opposition bloc "disappointed" President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. "They reportedly worked hard to issue this joint policy text but I feel sorry for those who cling their hopes to these parties," Erdoğan told a parliamentary group meeting of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) on Wednesday.

Indeed, for Erdoğan, the program was full of what AK Party governments did in the past two decades. "We achieved such a fast pace in development and democracy in this period, the opposition remained far behind," he said.

The president was confident of a victory against the bloc which still could not determine their candidate for the May 14 elections. "Here is a motto for you, Bay Kemal: Bye Bye Kemal," Erdoğan said at the meeting, using an expression he always uses to address Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, head of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).

Erdoğan listed the accomplishments of AK Party governments, from a new body of law clarifying the executive, legislative and judiciary organs’ responsibilities with a new administrative system (executive presidency), largely achieving goals they set to accomplish before the centenary of the Republic of Türkiye in 2023, "despite attacks and global crises." "It is a success story to bring Türkiye to a level where it defies global crises, from a level where it was languishing in its own crises," Erdoğan said. "Certainly, we may have neglected achieving some goals because we worked day and night for 20 years," Erdoğan said in reference to pledges in the opposition’s election program. "But we still face a ‘table for six’ unable to nominate a candidate yet," he said.

"They apparently did not rack their brains to create new projects and did not see what they have pledged were already done and we even did more. They have eyes but they don’t see," he said.

The opposition’s election program, a text with more than 200 pages, includes a change in the presidential term, limiting it to one term for seven years and the abolition of the Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSK), excluding the justice minister from the process of assignment of judges and prosecutors. The bloc has also pledged to decrease the vote threshold to 3% for political parties to secure seats in Parliament. The opposition also plans to change the current executive presidency system and an item in the text pledges to abolish all offices and boards in the Presidency and hand over their authority to relevant ministries. As for ministries, the bloc said they would separate the Treasury and Finance Ministry into two entities. According to the text, Parliament will be the only authority to withdraw from international treaties that Türkiye is a party to.

The text also includes the implementation of local administration reforms that will end the practice of appointment of trustees to municipalities whose mayors were removed on charges of corruption or links to a terrorist group. Erdoğan said the bloc embraced the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) affiliated with the PKK terrorist group by removing trustees and giving autonomy to municipalities. The program also pledged to abolish the consequences of the state of emergency decrees implemented after the July 15, 2016 coup attempt that accelerated the dismissal of suspects linked to the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), which was behind the putsch bid. Erdoğan said the opposition also bowed down to "its partners" the PKK and FETÖ.

The bloc also pledged to move the current presidential office in the capital Ankara’s Beştepe to Çankaya, a historic estate that is currently used by the vice president and was Türkiye’s first Presidential Complex before it was handed over to the now-abolished prime ministry. The office of the prime minister will also make a comeback, according to the opposition’s road map. The opposition also promised to open all palaces, mansions and other estates allocated to the Presidency for public use. It also pledged to sell all presidential planes and purchase firefighting planes instead.

On the opposition’s pledges to remove heads of critical institutions like the army and intelligence, and investigate nuclear power plants and defense projects, were "a signal to the West."

"Türkiye does not deserve such an opposition. If this is their election program, I can’t imagine what this country will be turned into once they were required to assume responsibilities," he said.

On the pledge that the Presidency would be moved to Çankaya, Erdoğan said both the Presidential Complex and Çankaya were the property of the public, not his own.