A long-running political thriller has been brought to an end by the opposition in Turkey, which has agreed to support Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the head of the Republican Party (CHP), as a candidate in the May 14 presidential election.
The 74-year-old Kilicdaroglu will be an opponent of Tayyip Erdogan in the May 14 presidential and parliamentary elections.
Opinion polls show the opposition is slightly ahead of the ruling coalition, but the upcoming election is expected to be decided by a thread.
Meanwhile, Meral Aksener of the Good Party (IYI), second in power after the CHP, had returned to the negotiating table. Aksener disagreed with the candidacy of Kilicdaroglu and proposed as candidates the mayors of Istanbul or Ankara, Ekrem Imamoglu and Mansur Yavas. However, both declined this offer and after meeting with the two mayors and Kilicdaroglu himself on Monday in Ankara, Aksener finally rejoined the Alliance.
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The pro-Kurdish HDP party, which views Kilicdaroglu’s candidacy positively, announced that it might support him and not field its own candidate in the presidential election, and said it was open to talks with the Alliance. In the previous parliamentary elections, the HDP had gathered a percentage of 12%, while its presidential candidate – who is currently in prison – received a percentage of 8.4% in the presidential elections of 2018. This party had until now remained outside the Alliance, due to the presence Aksener’s Good Party, whose political line is incompatible with that of the HDP.
