Muharrem Ince, chairperson of the Homeland Party (MP) and presidential candidate for the upcoming elections, on Monday called on the six-party opposition alliance to withdraw from the election race, claiming he would win.
Speaking to the public in southern Antalya province, Ince said: “The Nation Alliance should withdraw from the race and back me. In that case, a win would be guaranteed.”
He claimed that he managed to draw voters from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), which the opposition failed in, and asserted he could better combine both voter bases.
On the other side, Ince last week said he could support the opposition under certain conditions.
İnce started his political career in the CHP and was elected as the party’s lawmaker from the Yalova constituency during the 2002 elections. He twice challenged the leadership of Kılıçdaroğlu, in 2014 and 2018, but failed to garner enough votes to defeat him in the CHP’s intra-party polls. Yet, Kılıçdaroğlu, whose party repeatedly lost all elections against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in two decades, nominated him as a contender against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the 2018 presidential elections. Erdoğan secured a landslide victory in the polls, while Ince is credited with boosting the CHP’s vote for the first time in decades in such an election to over 30%. After the post-election fallout with the CHP, Ince established his own party in 2021.
The opposition is accusing him of splitting vote shares against Erdoğan by being a presidential candidate and not supporting Kılıçdaroğlu.
