Professor Mustafa Şentop, a Justice and Development Party (AK Party) deputy and also the head of the alliance commission that was founded after the AK Party and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) joined forces for the 2019 elections, said yesterday that the election will likely be concluded in the first round according to recent surveys.
"I don't see the possibility of a second round. The opposition will come up with an evaluation by looking at the constitutional referendum results. These are not comparable things. There's no possibility of a second round in an election that our president is one of the candidates," said Şentop, who is also head of the Constitutional Committee in Parliament.
He added that there is no need to make an evaluation regarding the election threshold and in the next seven years, they will work to help the system settle. He further stated that Turkey needs to allow parties to come up with election alliances and that this is an issue that will be discussed in time.
AK Party spokesman Mahir Ünal, Justice Minister Abdülhamit Gül and Şentop have been named AK Party representatives for the alliance committee, while the MHP named deputies Mehmet Parsak, Mustafa Kalaycı and Faruk Aksu.
The AK Party and the MHP plan to work out the details of the alliance the two parties recently decided to form. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan welcomed MHP Chairman Devlet Bahçeli's first step toward a political alliance, and it was announced the two parties would establish a joint alliance committee for the adjustment laws.
Meanwhile, Mustafa Destici, chairman of the opposition Great Unity Party (BBP), expressed yesterday that there is nothing more natural than an alliance with the AK Party and the MHP if it becomes legal.Speaking in a radio program, Destici indicated that he supports Erdoğan right now, since he thinks this would be more beneficial for the country, nation and region."We can't overlook the circumstances that our country is in right now. We can't overlook the things that are happening in northern Syria, the process with the EU and the U.S., and the circumstances in Iran. We are deciding by evaluating all of these circumstances since we have the responsibility to do so," he said.
He added that they finally have a chance to change the election law, and if opposition parties do not support this, their hypocrisy will come into light.
MHP Chairman Bahçeli announced on Monday that his party would not nominate a candidate for the 2019 elections and would instead support Erdoğan.
e said the underlying reason for this decision is that his party would act in accordance with the Yenikapı spirit, referring to the rally that took place in the Yenikapı district of Istanbul on Aug. 7 with the participation of every political leader, except from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP). The meeting was considered a symbol of political consensus following the July 15, 2016 failed coup.
