The Turkish opposition alliance is expected to announce on Monday Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu as its candidate against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the much-anticipated May elections.
The choice of Kılıçdaroğlu, who leads the center-left Republican People’s Party (CHP), has not gone down without controversy in the Nation Alliance. One of the biggest parties in the alliance refused to endorse Kılıçdaroğlu, ruining efforts to present a united front.
Meral Akşener, the leader of the nationalist Good Party (IP), the second-strongest force in the alliance, said Friday she would not support a Kılıçdaroğlu candidacy and left what had been a six-party bloc.
She accused members of the alliance of pressuring her party and defying the people’s will, saying, "Personal ambition was preferred to Türkiye."
Akşener believes Kılıçdaroğlu, 74, has a poor chance of winning in the elections scheduled for May 14. Instead, she wanted to nominate popular Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu or Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavaş, as both CHP politicians do better in polls than their party leader.
But Kılıçdaroğlu, the long-time leader of the main opposition in Türkiye, was supported by his CHP and the four smaller parties in the alliance. The mayors also backed him, issuing statements reaffirming their commitment to the party chair and the cause of the partnership.
Yavaş had recently indicated that he would accept the duty of a presidential candidate if the opposition coalition asked him to, while Imamoğlu’s candidacy was seen as risky because of an ongoing judicial process.
He was sentenced in December to over two years imprisonment and a ban from political office for insulting election officials following his win four years ago.
The public split on Friday followed months of simmering discord in the group and was seen by analysts as a blow to opposition hopes of unseating Erdoğan – who has been in power for two decades.
Erdoğan’s critics have pinned big hopes on the alliance as it would unite parties from a broad – and fractious – political spectrum on one candidate.
In a last-minute statement early Monday, Akşener also revealed she would rejoin the alliance if either Yavaş or Imamoğlu were nominated.
"I wouldn’t make it a matter of pride and return to the coalition if Mr. Kemal or the bloc will accept the will of the people," she said.
When the bloc unveiled its positions in January, it promised a return to parliamentary rule and an end to the presidential system under which Erdoğan has enjoyed far-reaching powers since 2018.
The alliance’s proposed changes would make the president of Türkiye more of a ceremonial head of state by stripping the president’s power to issue decrees, mandating that the president belongs to no political party, and imposing a seven-year term limit.
The opposition announced that they would also campaign to fight rampant inflation. The group aims to reduce inflation to a single-digit percentage within two years.
The alliance also vowed to restore independence to Türkiye’s central bank and committed to pursuing Türkiye’s long-stalled bid for European Union membership.
A day after Akşener’s shock split, Erdoğan, who previously predicted the opposition would fall apart, dismissed the development and reiterated that his ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and its ally, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), would stay the set course.
"We decided not to speak on the issue until a second development. Then, as the AK Party, we will conduct the necessary evaluations during our MYK (Central Administration Board) and MKYK (Central Executive Committee and Central Decision Board) meetings and then decide," Erdoğan said.