Türkiye’s six-party opposition will reveal its presidential candidate, who will run against incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in February, an opposition party official said Friday.
Türkiye is heading toward one of the most consequential votes in the centurylong history of the modern republic. At the same time, Erdoğan signaled on Wednesday that the presidential and parliamentary elections would be on May 14, a month ahead of schedule.
“The name of the (six-party opposition’s) presidential candidate will probably be declared sometime in February,” Ünal Çeviköz, an adviser of main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, told reporters.
The six-party alliance is seeking to forge a united platform. Still, it has yet to agree on a candidate to challenge Erdoğan for the presidency. He carried his ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) to victory over two decades ago and has led successive wins then.
The AK Party is currently running together with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) under the People’s Alliance.
Türkiye’s two main opposition parties, the secularist CHP and center-right nationalist Good Party (IP), have allied themselves with four smaller parties, the Felicity Party (SP), the Future Party (GP), the Democrat Party (DP) and the Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA), under a platform that promises a return to a “Reinforced Parliamentary System” if elected.
Çeviköz said leaders of the six opposition parties would reveal on Jan. 30 in two documents their proposals for a transitional period to a parliamentary system and their government program.
So far, however, the “table for six,” a moniker frequently used by and about the alliance, has been in disarray, struggling to reach a consensus on most principles, including a leading presidential candidate with multiple party heads hinting at trying their luck come May.
Internal conflicts have recently surfaced regarding how the unknown candidate would act if elected. GP Chair Ahmet Davutoğlu even argued the candidate would be steered by the instructions of the alliance in making decisions for specific assignments, stirring up debates about whether it would be constitutional to have such a “puppet president.”
Erdoğan swung at his opposition earlier this week, saying they would “run the country with six, even 10 people” behind the curtain.
“They want to have a puppet president they will manage. They imagine a commander-in-chief who would serve as an aide to members of the ‘table for six.’ They want voters to elect an unknown candidate without any vision or plans. We know CHP long had this vanity, this fascist behavior, but we did not know that others have it too,” he told a meeting of his party in Ankara.
The 2023 elections will likely be the first time with two rounds, as it will be the first since the country switched to a presidential system of governance. However, for Erdoğan, the elections will be “more important and historical” due to what he called the “beginning of Türkiye’s new vision, the Century of Türkiye,” a motto Erdoğan often repeats about new action plans in a wide array of fields, from defense to economy, to improve Türkiye’s standing in the international community.
Most recent surveys conducted by the AK Party also reveal a three-point rise, exceeding 41%, in support for the party and Erdoğan, the longest-serving president in the century-old history of the Turkish republic. However, two factors appear to have changed the minds of undecided voters: a landmark regulation that grants early retirement for more than 2 million people and raises in minimum wage and wages of civil servants and pensioners. The other factor is the apparent loss of trust in the six-party alliance.
Neither side has yet to launch official election rallies. However, the current outlook indicates the race for the presidential seat could heat up starting next month.
