The Good Party (IP) will compete in the March 2024 local elections with its own cadres, IP Chairperson Meral Akşener said Saturday, as disputes among the opposition alliance heat up.
Speaking in Afyonkarahisar, Akşener said that she had warned that politics led by political elites and so-called opinion leaders who are distanced from the realities of the Turkish public would fail ahead of the presidential elections in May.
“We have reacted and warned. We have stood against those talking through their hat from their seats and those being unaware of the realities of our nation and people. Furthermore, what is more sad is that we not only struggled against ruling party members but also with those that worked for these elections to be lost in purpose,” Akşener said. The IP leader’s comments were a criticism against the Republican People's Party (CHP).
Akşener was against nominating CHP head Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu as a candidate of the six-party opposition coalition for the presidential elections due to her favoring the CHP’s popular Ankara and Istanbul mayors, Mansur Yavaş and Ekrem Imamoğlu.
“They tried to put the bill of the election on us without shame on television. Unfortunately, the millions who wanted to hold on to a new hope were filled with anger instead of hope. However, what we needed to do was to appear before our nation as an opposition that learned from its mistakes,” she added, referring to Kılıçdaroğlu’s post-election statements that were far from self-criticism and reflection.
"I thought it would be enough to defeat the government at the ballot box to bring Türkiye out of the crisis. But I could not see that the real problem was within our own ranks. For this reason, I apologize to the great Turkish nation. I did everything in my power to pave the way for these two friends (Yavaş and Imamoğlu). But unfortunately, I could not prevent those who blocked their way,” Akşener said.
Turning to local elections, Akşener said that the IP would not interpret them from a stance of rivalry as in the general elections but would rather take into consideration the local features and will of the people.
The IP chair also called on the ruling Justice and Development Party's (AK Party) chairperson, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chair Devlet Bahçeli and the CHP's Kılıçdaroğlu for a general consensus for all parties to "run in the elections separately.”
Erdoğan won the presidential runoff with 52.18% from 27,834,589 voters, while his main challenger Kılıçdaroğlu garnered 25,504,724 votes, amounting to 47.82%.
On the other hand, the ruling party had lost control of Istanbul and Ankara for the first time in 25 years, as well as five of Türkiye’s largest cities, to the CHP in the 2019 elections, something the opposition characterized as a blow to the AK Party's popularity, but both the president and his party came out victorious in May.
The AK Party’s plan now is to give extra attention to Istanbul and the five cities, where Erdoğan said his party must “conquer the hearts of everyone and launch a rebirth of municipalism.”
Similar to the IP, Pervin Buldan, the co-chair of the pro-PKK Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), which endorsed CHP contenders in both the 2019 and 2023 elections, recently announced the party would compete with its own candidate in the local elections, triggering a red alarm in the CHP as another victory in Istanbul and Ankara looks increasingly impossible.
