A little over a month after Türkiye’s landmark presidential and parliamentary elections, the Good Party (IP) is slated to convene its executive body to elect a new chair, general executive board and a central disciplinary council on June 24-26, the party announced Monday.
The decision comes from the IP Chair Meral Akşener hailing party regulations amid what could culminate in a crushing defeat for the Turkish opposition after the May elections and an uncertain future for Akşener at her party, pundits say.
Alongside the secular Republican People's Party (CHP), the nationalist IP is the second-largest in an alliance of six opposition parties that joined forces against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan first in the run-up to the 2018 elections.
While their Nation Alliance won 35% of the parliamentary vote on May 14 for all five parties that ran under the CHP’s banner, which managed to clinch 169 seats with 25.3%, the IP itself received a disappointing 9.6% support amounting to 43 lawmakers, totaling 212 for the bloc.
The bloc has lost majority in the 600-member Parliament to the People's Alliance, helmed by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and two other smaller parties, which walked away with 49.5% support translating to a total of 323 lawmakers. Erdoğan’s AK Party secured 35.6% – some 268 lawmakers – enjoying countrywide support, even from provinces like Kahramanmaraş and Şanlıurfa that were devastated by two catastrophic earthquakes earlier in February.
The Nation Alliance’s joint candidate and CHP Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu too lagged at 44.8% behind Erdoğan whose strong performance on May 14 gave him 49.5% of support, just shy of the 50% threshold for outright victory, shattering opinion polls that had suggested the very opposite and paving the way for the first presidential runoff in modern Türkiye’s history.
Less-than-satisfying results have the opposition bloc resorting to claims that the second-round vote on May 28 is now a “referendum” and harshening their rhetoric to appeal to more nationalist voters who felt sidelined during the bloc’s campaign for drawing endorsement from terrorist groups like the PKK and the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ).
The 74-year-old Kılıçdaroğlu entered the race with controversial backing from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), a party that held some 10% support nationwide but is widely condemned for alleged ties to the PKK, much to the chagrin of Akşener who still often lambasts any claim that the six-party alliance could “cooperate” with the HDP or terrorists.
Akşener and Kılıçdaroğlu have also been at odds over the CHP leader’s presidential candidacy in the long fractious period before the bloc named Kılıçdaroğlu, with Akşener indicating Kılıçdaroğlu lacked the “spark” to affect the Turkish electorate accustomed to Erdoğan’s strong public addresses.
She even quit the alliance in early March, calling for her favored candidates, the popular mayors of Istanbul and Ankara, to run instead, only to return days later after securing Kılıçdaroğlu’s promise of vice presidential posts for the two mayors.
Adding to several departures in the months leading to May 14, the first resignation after the IP’s subpar performance came on the second day as Akşener’s aide overseeing economy policies Özcan Kadıoğlu quit over what he called “a failure to fulfill promises he was given during the IP’s foundation.”
Whether he was forced to resign or it was voluntary is up for debate as analysts now turn to Akşener and her wobbling seat.
Not only the IP but the larger six-party alliance too is rumored to crack and fall apart if the runoff doesn’t yield them a victory. Kılıçdaroğlu in particular is said to be facing a potentially grim end to his political career if he loses one more election to Erdoğan.
