The wife of a pro-PKK party’s jailed former leader has dropped out of the mayoral race for Istanbul as opposition parties hold last-minute bargains ahead of the high-stakes elections next month.
Başak Demirtaş, spouse of former Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş, on Wednesday announced she had withdrawn her name from the candidate pool of the Green Left Party (YSP), informally known as the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) and previously going by HDP.
"At this stage, the party and I have reached a consensus that my declaration to run for Istanbul mayor not become a formal application," Demirtaş said in a written statement.
In a move that surprised even YSP executives, Demirtaş last month revealed she was "prepared to take on responsibility for Istanbul" if the party agreed to it.
She said she had been informed of YSP’s election preparations in a meeting with party representatives earlier on Monday.
Thanking the party’s headquarters for their "unfailing support" of her potential candidacy, Demirtaş assured party members that "all decisions have been made in full coordination with our party."
The YSP will "stand behind and work for the success of all mayoral candidates" the party will announce in the coming days, Demirtaş added.
After weeks of uncertainty, the YSP on Sunday confirmed it would nominate its own candidate for Istanbul, along with Ankara and other cities, effectively dealing a blow to the alliance hope of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).
The CHP has been courting the YSP, as well as the Good Party (IP), ahead of the March elections, both of which are fielding their own candidates.
While IP has named a few lackluster mayoral candidates, the YSP is gearing up to announce names by this Friday.
The pro-PKK party has held talks with CHP leader Özgür Özel over a potential alliance earlier but talks apparently fell through, though DEM, then known as the HDP, endorsed CHP candidate Ekrem Imamoğlu in the Istanbul elections in 2019.
Imamoğlu runs again in the upcoming vote and his main rival will be Murat Kurum, the former minister of environment and urban planning who was nominated by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party).
The party claims clout in working-class neighborhoods of Istanbul and other big cities and is among the parties credited for Imamoğlu’s unprecedented win that ended long AK Party tenure in the city’s town hall.
Imamoğlu already lost IP support after that party’s chair Meral Akşener vowed to field her own candidates, despite the fallout with several prominent names and co-founders of IP.
Some 64 million eligible voters are set to elect mayors and local administrators in 81 provinces in March this year, but the mayoral race for Istanbul and the capital Ankara, both of which have been run by the CHP since it clinched a surprise victory in the 2019 elections for the first time in over two decades, hog most of the public attention.
The AK Party, eager to recapture the two key cities from the opposition, unveiled its election declaration last week as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan vowed to "save Türkiye from a whirlpool of failures by delivering true municipalism."
All eligible 35 parties must submit their candidates to the authorities by Feb. 20 at the latest. Campaigning and certain election bans will take effect on March 21, a week before the polls.