Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD: As per analysts the next elections in Turkiye will be the most consequential in generations. Interestingly, on Wednesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in an announcement signaled that he plans to hold the next general election on May 14. This move would bring the polls forward by one month.
Turkiye has been ruled by Erdogan and his party for a tempestuous twenty years that have seen many years of economic booms and busts as well wars and even a coup attempt.
At this stage, members of the secular opposition in Turkiye are yet to agree on nearly all issues ranging from policy to strategy. They are yet to agree on which candidate to field against incumbent Erdogan.
The official date on which Turkiye’s next general election is scheduled to be held is June 18.
Turkish President Erdogan invokes Adnan Menderes’ 1950 vote win
On Wednesday, at an event to observe modern Turkiye’s first free election that was held on 14 May, 1950, Erdogan in an address to his ruling party and recalled the day modern Turkiye held its first free election in 1950.
That election on May 14 was won by Adnan Menderes. In 1960, prime minister Menderes was toppled by a military junta and after a year was executed.
Erdogan compares himself to Menderes as he was himself deposed and imprisoned for a short time in the 1990s when he was Istanbul’s mayor.
At Wednesday’s event, Erdogan cited Menderes emerging victorious on May 14, 1950 and went on to say that 73 days later, on the same day, Turkish people give “give their answer” to the opposition.
