The Republican People's Party (CHP) and the far-right Good Party (İP) have expanded their alliance for the March 31 local elections to 41 provinces, yet disagreements in certain districts of Ankara and Antalya remain.
The two parties reached an agreement early December to continue the previously formed Nation Alliance in 21 metropolises and eventually agreed to expand the alliance to include 20 more provinces.
According to that agreement, the İP would back CHP candidates in Bolu, Kırşehir, Sivas and Erzincan provinces. The CHP, on the other hand, would support İP candidates in six provinces, including Isparta, Düzce, Nevşehir, Afyonkarahisar, Osmaniye and Kırıkkale. The alliance also decided to allow İP to compete in Elazığ and Yozgat.
However, talks on certain districts of capital Ankara and the Mediterranean town of Antalya continue and so does disagreement over who would field a candidate in Ankara's Etimesgut and Antalya's Kepez districts.
The two parties also failed to nominate a joint candidate in the Nationalist Movement Party's (MHP) stronghold southern Mersin province and eventually decided to nominate their own separate candidates.
The CHP announced on Friday former deputy Vahap Seçer as its candidate for the metropolitan municipality, whereas the İP presented current Mayor Burhanettin Kocamaz for the same office.
Apart from Mersin, the CHP also announced 99 other candidates Friday, including one for the northwestern province of Bursa.
The candidates were announced after a party caucus meeting chaired by the party Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. The mayor of Bursa's Nilüfer district, Mustafa Bozbey, was announced as the party's Bursa candidate. In Kahramanmaraş, it nominated party deputy Ali Öztunç.
The CHP is expected to announce the mayoral candidate for its traditional stronghold İzmir, Turkey's third-largest city, on Jan. 16.
On Jan. 12, it will introduce the municipal candidate for Ankara, Mansur Yavaş, in a special ceremony. At the end of January, a meeting would likely be held with the participation of all candidates, and the manifestation for the upcoming local election will be declared.
The alliance talks with the İP, on the other hand, are expected to be completed Monday. The two parties have been signaling that they will continue the Nation Alliance formed with the conservative Felicity Party (SP) and center-right Democrat Party (DP) in the June 24 parliamentary elections so as to appeal to a larger voter base.
The alliance, however, suffered a defeat in the June 24 presidential and parliamentary elections, garnering around 33.9 percent of the votes.
