Opposition seem to favor Erdoğan as president

When the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and the conservative opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) announced Professor Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu as their joint candidate for the Aug. 10 presidential elections, at first, some people felt this was a brilliant idea cooked up by the party leaders to beat the probable Justice and Development Party (AK Party) candidate Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. After all, İhsanoğlu, with his conservative Islamic background, academic career and experience in Islamic affairs seems to be the ideal candidate to woo the masses who would normally vote for Erdoğan.

Later, as time went by and people did some deep thinking, they started to realize that in fact İhsanoğlu's candidacy, cooked up by CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu without consulting his own party people, was not such a good idea. It satisfied MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli and his people, but tough resistance also began building up against İhsanoğlu among the CHP ranks.

CHP leader Kılıçdaroğlu frequently says that the new president should not be a political personality. Yet the fact that the people will be directly electing the president seems to suggest that the new head of state should not only be a politician, but also a strong political personality, as he will need to command the support of a majority of the people with more than 51 percent of the vote. This will put him in a stronger position as an individual against a political party that comes to power with less than 50 percent of the vote.

İhsanoğlu is not a political personality and has no political experience. Thus he would have a hard time entering the world of politics at such a level without any experience. Kılıçdaroğlu and Bahçeli are the two people who should be aware of this more than anyone else.
The CHP and MHP decided on a joint candidate to rally all the support they could possibly get for an individual to beat Erdoğan. Yet we see that the Kurds have already declared they will not back İhsanoğlu during the first round of the presidential elections.

The pro-Islamic Saadet Party has also declared its opposition to İhsanoğlu. But beyond that, the strong reaction against İhsanoğlu within the CHP suggests that the so-called "alliance" will not even garner the votes of some regular CHP voters. So the mission to rally enough votes to beat Erdoğan will be unsuccesful. This has prompted Prime Minister Erdoğan to comment on İhsanoğlu's possible candidacy for president, saying, "he is the candidate at the rooftop of a house without a foundation."

How will the CHP and MHP support İhsanoğlu during the presidential campaign? They have already said they will not hold joint rallies for him and that he will be on his own to lead his campaign. So will the CHP and MHP hold separate rallies to back İhsanoğlu?

As a candidate, what will İhsanoğlu have to offer and what kind of promises can he make without any political, logistical or technical backing?

İhsanoğlu sounds good as a candidate, but when the whole issue boils down to practicalities, the joint candidate of the CHP and MHP has little to offer. Some people have started the joke that Kılıçdaroğlu and Bahçeli have realized that they cannot get rid of Erdoğan so they fielded İhsanoğlu knowing that he had no chance of winning.

Thus they would secure Erdoğan's presidency and hope that when he goes to the presidential palace the AK Party could then become an easier political entity to beat in the 2015 parliamentary elections.

Judging from the facts, it seems the joke could become reality. Professor İhsanoğlu may have walked into a nasty trap created by Kılıçdaroğlu and approved by Bahçeli.