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CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu (in January in Ankara): Considered the most likely opposition candidate
Photo: ADEM ALTAN / AFP
The Turkish opposition is resisting a renewed candidacy by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
She accuses him of breaking the law.
In the joint statement by an alliance of six parties on Thursday evening, there is talk of "another black chapter in the history of our democracy".
The alliance wants to nominate a joint candidate in the election against Erdoğan planned for May.
The 68-year-old Erdoğan announced last week that he would decree early presidential and parliamentary elections on May 14.
According to the constitution, this can be done either with 60 percent of the votes in parliament or by decree by the president.
The opposition argues that the constitution only allows Erdoğan – who was elected president in 2014 and a second in 2018 – to run for a third time only if parliament forces new elections.
Constitutional lawyers at odds over renewed Erdoğan candidacy
In parliament, however, Erdoğan's ruling AKP and its ultra-nationalist partner MHP only have a simple majority - so they could not decide on a new election without the opposition.
According to the government, however, nothing stands in the way of the candidacy.
Erdoğan was elected the first president in a new presidential system after a constitutional amendment in 2018 – so his previous term does not count.
Constitutional law experts are divided on whether a new candidacy is possible or not.
The opposition alliance plans to nominate a joint presidential candidate in February.
A possible candidate is Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu from the largest opposition party, CHP.
However, in December he was sentenced to more than two years in prison and banned from politics, which could jeopardize his chances.
The case is still on appeal.
According to observers, the most likely scenario is that CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu will stand for the opposition.
Does the pro-Kurdish HDP party put forward its own candidate?
Despite the threat of a party ban, the co-leader of the pro-Kurdish opposition party HDP, Pervin Buldan, advocated nominating her own candidate in the presidential election this month - especially since the HDP was expelled from the six-party opposition alliance.
Former HDP leader Selahattin Demirtaş, meanwhile, spoke out in favor of the HDP supporting an opposition candidate rather than nominating its own candidate.
"I am in favor of supporting a joint candidate," said Demirtaş, who is being held in a prison in Edirne, through his lawyer.
Demirtaş has long been a dangerous rival for Erdoğan.
Then he was accused of "terrorism" by the government in Ankara, and he was arrested in 2016.
Some of the six parties in the alliance are staunch nationalists and shy away from wooing Kurdish voters.
An alliance with the HDP helped the opposition win the mayoral elections in Istanbul and Ankara in 2019.
A ban on the party ahead of the election could now result in traditional HDP voters either staying at home or backing the opposition's joint candidate.
Observers assume that the elections will be postponed to May so that they do not fall during the month of Ramadan or during the holidays - but also so that election gifts such as doubling the minimum wage do not evaporate against the background of high inflation.
aeh/dpa/AFP