Turkey: Erdogan's opponent withdraws from elections

(ANSA) - ISTANBUL, MAY 11 - Muharrem Ince, one of the politicians running against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Sunday's elections in Turkey, has announced his withdrawal. Ince, leader of a small opposition formation, the Fatherland Party, in the last presidential elections of 2018 was the main challenger of Erdogan with the largest opposition party, the CHP, obtaining just over 30% of the votes.
The 59-year-old politician justified his departure by citing criticism and verbal attacks received during the election campaign. He said that with his withdrawal, the coalition of the major opposition parties will not be able to blame him in the event of a possible defeat. In addition, he did not give indications of voting for another candidate.
In recent weeks, Ince had often been accused by sympathizers of the major opposition political forces of hindering with his candidacy a possible victory in the first round of Kemal Kilicdaroglu who leads a coalition formed by the main parties that oppose Erdogan.
According to the most recent polls, Ince has support ranging from 1% to 3% while Kilicdaroglu is given over 49%, ahead of Erdogan but still unable to cross the 50% threshold to be able to win the elections in the first round.
After being defeated in the 2018 presidential elections, Ince tried to become president of the largest opposition party CHP but failed. He therefore decided to abandon it by going to form in 2021 the Fatherland Party (Memleket Partisi), a secular and centrist formation. (ANSA).