President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has once again put his opposition on blast for reviving “old debates of the past two decades that undermine faith in politics” and said they were “trying to pass their plastic candidate off as hope for Türkiye.”
Pointing to months of fractious arguments that temporarily tore the six-party opposition coalition apart in the run-up to Türkiye’s much-anticipated May elections, Erdoğan on Wednesday accused his challengers of “selling out every principle they have for political interest” as he chatted with citizens at an iftar, a dinner to mark the breaking of the daily fast, in the western Denizli province.
“They’re all but seven people but not a day goes by where they don’t quarrel,” Erdoğan said, referring to his frequent criticism of the opposition bloc for turning into a seven-party coalition with the pro-PKK Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) as a secret partner.
The HDP is widely known for its alleged ties to PKK terrorists and is currently in danger of being disbanded.
Erdoğan’s chief rival Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the head of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the bloc’s joint presidential runner, has been a target of criticism for embracing the HDP and pledging to free its leader Selahattin Demirtaş and PKK ringleader Abdullah Öcalan, both facing terrorism charges of various degrees, from jail.
His promises drew the ire of both his partners and Erdoğan who has repeatedly criticized him for “acting as the pawn of Western imperialists” and “receiving his instructions” from a mountainous region of northern Iraq where PKK militants have their rear base, especially after the HDP gave Kılıçdaroğlu its tacit support last month.
The coalition, formerly called the Nation Alliance, includes an upstart right-wing party, the Good Party (IP), that refuses to work with HDP leaders in any future government that would form should Erdoğan lose. The IP leader’s objections to Kılıçdaroğlu and his rapprochement with the HDP often spark debates within the bloc.
Many claimed Kılıçdaroğlu had sought the HDP’s favor due to the party’s kingmaker status as it enjoys more than 10% support.
“They cannot even manage each other, but they’re up for managing 85 million people in Türkiye,” Erdoğan said on Wednesday.
Arguing that the bloc had “no real solution, vision or concrete project” regarding Türkiye’s fundamental issues, the president said, “We watch in embarrassment the pit of heedlessness the coalition is floundering in.”
He once again slammed the alliance for “beseeching every terror group they can find for their fleeting interests” and bristled at Kılıçdaroğlu’s promises to release Demirtaş and Öcalan, saying, “He’s holding dirty bargains with the political extensions of divisive terror groups behind closed doors.”
Recalling Kılıçdaroğlu’s assurance that he was “bringing in $300 billion to Türkiye” should he win, Erdoğan further said, “From offering Türkiye up on a platter to global usurers and condemning it to the bitter medicine of the IMF, this, his coalition, has every mandatary aspiration.”
On May 14, citizens will be voting to choose between the pitch-black mentality of the CHP and the shining sun of the Century of Türkiye, Erdoğan told the crowd in Denizli.
Stressing that next month’s vote would be “vital” for today’s and tomorrow’s generations, Erdoğan concluded, “One side of the ballot will be stability and faith in politics and the other will be the chaotic days of coalition governments from the 1990s.”
Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Deputy Chair Numan Kurtulmuş too echoed him in dismissing Kılıçdaroğlu’s claims of a $300 billion investment.
“It’s entirely a lie, merely an election promise and it’s the promise of old Türkiye,” he said Wednesday night during a television interview.
Kurtulmuş further addressed recent claims over the security of the current election system, especially the CHP’s objections to not being allowed to use the Nation Alliance name in 16 provinces where it’s running joint parliamentary candidates with the Good Party (IP).
“The elections will be executed safe and soundly. They’re making up excuses already,” Kurtulmuş said.
“Democracy is a race for qualified people. So all parties must protect their ballot boxes, and so must all citizens,” he stressed. “By bringing this up, they’re confirming in advance the election results and finding cover for their defeat.”
Kurtulmuş also slammed Kılıçdaroğlu for accusing Erdoğan’s government of stoking ethnic tensions with the Kurdish community for political gain.
“The AK Party has built a law between our citizens and the terrorist organization. We have carried out the biggest reforms. Therefore, his remarks about ‘treating Kurds like terrorists’ are entirely slander. The CHP is alarmed over the fascism it imposed on Kurds for years,” he said.
“Kılıçdaroğlu needs the HDP. Without them, he has no room for movement. The Nation Alliance is no longer talking about returning to their so-called Strengthen Parliamentary System. It’s all anti-Erdoğan politics now,” he said.
Also on Wednesday, the Supreme Election Council (YSK) released the finalized list of parliamentary candidates that will run on May 14 after assessing formal objections to standing names.
A total of 24 political parties and 151 independent candidates will be competing in the polls, the YSK said.
The final list shows all parties under the People’s Alliance, headlined by the AK Party in partnership with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the Great Unity Party (BBP) and the New Welfare Party (YRP), which will run in a total of 87 constituencies.
The AK Party has, in the meantime, replaced three parliamentary candidates in the final lists, two in Istanbul and one in the Samsun province.
The list also confirmed the Nation Alliance partners CHP and IP will be running candidates with a single list in 16 provinces. Additionally, the CHP will compete by itself in 9 of the 16 provinces, while the IP will compete alone in the other seven provinces.
Thus, the CHP will compete in 80 constituencies and the IP in 78.
Both parties have objected to the YSK’s ruling not to allow the Nation Alliance logo to be used above their own on the ballot boxes used in the said 16 provinces.
“It’s an unlawful decision. They’re introducing new rules after the match has begun,” CHP Deputy Chair Muharrem Erkek complained.
The YSK also rejected the opposition’s application to have ministers running as parliamentary candidates resign or decline their candidacy if they refuse to leave.
“The ministers will not be considered public officials due to the method of their appointments being different and the swearing of the oath at Parliament,” the board explained.
On May 14, some 64 million Turkish citizens, both at home and abroad, will be heading to the polls to elect Türkiye’s 13th president and all 600 members of Parliament.
While four presidential candidates are confirmed to officially compete in the upcoming vote, including Erdoğan, Kılıçdaroğlu, Homeland Party (MP) Chair Muharrem Ince, and the ATA Alliance’s far-right candidate Sinan Oğan, the race is likely to be primarily between Erdoğan and Kılıçdaroğlu.
Two opinion polls conducted by Areda survey company in March and April show 50.8% support for Erdoğan and 43.1% for Kılıçdaroğlu.
In the case of a run-off, surveyors also overwhelmingly endorsed Erdoğan, marking some 52.6% for him and 47.4% for Kılıçdaroğlu.
This is the first election since Türkiye held its first multiparty elections – again on another May 14, some 73 years ago – in which many such alliances will compete.
