Campaigns begin as parties submit candidate lists to YSK

All party deputy candidate lists were announced to the public on Tuesday evening after the submission of the final list of candidates to the Supreme Election Board (YSK), the top election body, for the upcoming 24th general elections of the Turkish Republic to be held on June 7. This year, every political party is hailing their list as the most inclusive to attract approximately 56 million voters and attain the most deputies in the 550-seat Parliament. The candidate profiles of the political parties share certain similarities in some fields, but are widely varied in other areas. Ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) candidates include a prominent Armenian-Turkish columnist, a headscarf-wearing victim of the February 28, 1997 post-modern coup and a grandson of Sheikh Said, the leader of a Kurdish revolt in the early years of the modern Republic. The main opposition Republican People's Party's (CHP) list includes Armenian-Turkish lawyer Selina Özuzun Doğan and former senior member of the Islamist Felicity Party (SP) Mehmet Bekaroğlu.

While the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) decided to stay within its boundaries with only rightist and nationalist figures, half of the Peoples' Democratic Party's (HDP) candidates are female party members.

The candidate lists from the four major political parties – the AK Party, CHP, MHP and the HDP – shows an increase in the number of female candidates from previous elections. In 2011, the number of female deputy candidates was 268 in total from all four parties, but for the upcoming June elections the number has nearly doubled to 528 with the AK Party including 99 women, the HDP has listed 268, the CHP 103 and the MHP has listed 58 female deputy candidates. If the HDP passes the 10 percent election threshold and a there is a similar distribution of deputies from all parties as there was in 2011, the number of female deputies is expected to be nearly 90, increasing from the 79 female deputies currently in Parliament.

The lists also indicate that elected members of the 25th Parliament will be substantially different from the current figures with the AK Party excluding 105 deputies, the CHP 66, MHP 20 and the HDP excluded 15 deputies from their candidate lists.

There are similarities between the rival parties when comparing the candidates' backgrounds. Out of the 550 deputy candidates on the AK Party's deputy candidate list, 112 are lawyers, 66 are engineers, 32 are doctors and 36 are academics. The list also includes 17 journalists and 110 others from the private sector. In terms of level of education achieved, among AK Party deputy candidates 186 have acquired post-graduate degrees, 319 have bachelor's degrees and 45 have no university degree with 43 of them secondary school graduates and two elementary school graduates.

The main opposition CHP also has similar candidate profiles. The list of CHP deputy candidates includes 45 candidates with post-graduate degrees, 354 have bachelor's degrees, 28 candidates have secondary school degrees and 33 are elementary school graduates. The CHP also has 91 candidates who are lawyers, 62 engineers, 46 businessmen, 45 retirees and 43 doctors.

The MHP's deputy candidate list includes the lowest number of women with 53 candidates. Of the MHP's candidates, 430 have bachelor's degrees, 51 are lawyers, 49 are engineers, 38 are medical doctors and 14 are bureaucrats.

The HDP has listed the largest number of female deputy candidates. Out of the 550 deputy candidates from the HDP, 268 are women. The educational and working backgrounds of HDP's candidates, however, have not been listed.

The AK Party list showed that Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu will again be a candidate from Konya, his hometown in central Anatolia. Speaking after the list was revealed to the media, AK Party deputy chairman in charge of elections, Mustafa Şentop, said that the list excluded 70 current deputies as AK Party bylaws do not allow its members to serve three consecutive terms in Parliament.

According to the AK Party's list, the first candidate place in the first Istanbul district, which was the slot President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan ran in during previous elections when he was running for Parliament during his time as prime minister, has been granted to current Environment and Urbanism Minister İdris Güllüce. The first spot in Istanbul's second district has been granted to EU Minister and Chief Negotiator Volkan Bozkır, and Şentop has been granted the first spot in Istanbul's third district. In Ankara's two electoral districts, Deputy Prime Minister Yalçın Akdoğan has been listed as the first candidate in district one and Ankara Deputy Emrullah İşler is listed as the first candidate in district two.