Türkiye’s two major opposition parties are negotiating a fresh agreement for the upcoming mayoral vote months after a defeat in May’s general elections brought down their six-party alliance.
While President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s governing Justice and Development Party (AK Party) is preparing to finalize cities and districts where it will cooperate with its People’s Alliance partner Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) is struggling to persuade the Good Party (IP) to revive their own alliance.
The CHP is "well aware" that the IP plans to field its own mayoral candidates in the March 2024 local elections, but believes "intending to make each other lose contradicts voters’ expectations and winning together would strengthen the opposition," according to CHP’s newly minted leader Özgür Özel.
Özel met with IP Chair Meral Akşener in her office last week, asking her to reconsider the party’s decision to compete alone, something that complicates the CHP’s odds in major cities like Istanbul and Ankara it has run since 2019.
Akşener reportedly told him the IP’s general executive council would discuss potential cooperation with the CHP on Monday.
"Whatever decision they make, positive or negative, the CHP will respect it and kindly maintain its relationship," Özel told reporters in Antalya on Saturday. "But my wish as CHP chair is of course a collaboration."
Akşener, who notoriously opposed former CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu’s presidential candidacy, walked out of the bloc when the opposition’s Nation Alliance lost to the AK Party in May. Her party has also clashed with the CHP over the gap in their parliamentary support, less than 10% compared to over 25% the CHP received.
The IP leader was angry at Kılıçdaroğlu after the election loss but appears to be warming up to the idea of an alliance with Özel who took the CHP’s reins last month following a lengthy intraparty feud.
The majority of her deputies, however, have remained resolutely against a reunion with the CHP. Dozens, including founding members and provincial chairs, quit in protest of Akşener’s inconsistent rhetoric. Some resigned when she rejected another alliance and some insist the IP is capable of winning municipalities by itself.
The party is already embroiled in intrafighting, with some members accusing the administration of corruption.
An alliance seems the only tangible way for the IP to get candidates elected while the CHP similarly relies on partners to win the local vote in places where it does not have a particularly strong showing.
In the 2019 polls, the IP’s support, along with the four smaller parties in their alliance, won CHP key metropolitans Istanbul and Ankara from the AK Party for the first time in over two decades.
The party is thus eager to maintain its hold on top constituencies but back-to-back losses and the previous administration’s failure to address existing problems have eroded its favor with opposition voters.
CHP darlings like Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavaş and Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu have lost some of their luster as public complaints over insufficient municipal services increased.
Imamoğlu is also currently facing the threat of being barred from politics in an ongoing lawsuit over his insulting of a public official.
Both mayors plan to return for a second term.
While Imamoğlu is yet to make an official move, Yavaş formally applied at CHP on Saturday for candidacy.
When a reporter reminded the CHP’s call for cooperation, Yavaş said, "We have maintained our stance as Nation Alliance mayors. We would like to work together again but the ultimate decision is theirs."
Erdoğan, in the meantime, has been indifferent to the fractious running through his opposition, declaring that the People’s Alliance is "busy analyzing metropolitans" to draw up a roadmap to the local vote.
"Whatever the CHP or Good Party or HEDEP is doing does not concern us, as their actions and words haven’t overlapped in a long while," Erdoğan told reporters Saturday on his way back to Türkiye from a trip to Dubai.
HEDEP is a new yet unofficial acronym the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) has attempted to adopt as it faces a risk of closure due to alleged links to the PKK terrorist group.
"Whoever faces us, we will teach them a lesson as we have in the last elections with the support of our people and leave them to their depression," Erdoğan said.
As for the mayoral candidate the AK Party eyes for Istanbul, Erdoğan refused to disclose any hints, assuring a name would be revealed once applications closed and necessary assessments have been concluded.
No dates have been announced yet, but the party will release its final candidate list in the second half of December.
Determined to win back all constituencies the AK Party lost in 2019, Erdoğan previously instructed his party to seek candidates with a good public image, "not candidates simply favored (by political lobbies)."
The official election schedule will start as of the new year and certified candidates will be announced by the Supreme Election Council (YSK) on March 3.