Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/ISTANBUL: An official from one of the six opposition parties in Türkiye said on Friday that the coalition’s presidential candidate, who would run against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s 20-year reign, will be announced in February.
Erdogan announced on Wednesday that Türkiye’s presidential and parliamentary elections would take place on May 14—a month earlier than initially planned, and are expected to be among the most significant in the century-long history of the modern republic.
Unal Cevikoz, an adviser of Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party, said, “The name of the presidential candidate for the six-party opposition will probably be announced in February.” The six-party alliance seeks to forge a united platform but has yet to agree on a candidate to challenge the presidency of Erdogan.
Türkiye’s major opposition parties’ candidate
The center-right nationalist IYI Party and the secularist CHP, two of Türkiye’s major opposition parties, have joined forces with four other parties under a platform that would aim to overthrow Erdogan’s executive presidency in favor of the previous parliamentary system.
Cevikoz announced that the six opposition party leaders would present their recommendations for a transitional period to a parliamentary system and their political agenda in two documents on January 30.
Erdogan’s admirers hold him in high regard for giving voice to the oppressed and establishing a thriving new middle class in the 85 million-strong country. But his rivals draw attention to an authoritarian inclination that showed itself during Erdogan’s second decade in power.
The 68-year-old leader left his imprint on Türkiye by reversing a staunchly secular tradition that had been in place in the country for a century since the founding of the country by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
Erdogan presided over wars, a failed but a brutal coup, and years of economic booms and busts. Many of the country’s media outlets are controlled by the government as it heads into the election, and hundreds of activists and politicians, many Kurds, are detained and awaiting trial.
