"I am here! I am here," Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu angrily declared as he slammed the desk in a video he released on social media after he narrowly lost the first round of presidential elections on May 14 to incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. He was still "there" on Sunday evening after losing the runoff to Erdoğan but appeared less confident at a news conference as the vote count neared the end.
The presidential candidate of the six-party opposition bloc said he would continue his struggle for democracy at the news conference. But he was not the confident candidate who rallied the crowd with the promise of ousting Erdoğan and warmed hearts with the heart-shaped hand gesture he popularized among his supporters. Kılıçdaroğlu was the laughing stock of his dissidents on social media who reversed his popular slogan, "I am Kemal, I am coming" (inspired by a famous line from an old Turkish film). Captions of "You are Kemal, you are going," "I am Kemal, I am now going" accompanied the memes related to Kılıçdaroğlu's defeat on social media.
At the headquarters of his Republican People’s Party (CHP), otherwise teeming with jubilant crowds on election night, an eerie silence lurked, before party spokesperson Faik Öztrak made a brief statement about the possible outcome of the election. Öztrak noted a "neck-and-neck" race as the vote count continued but generally, he was less bullish than he was during the first round and left without taking questions.
Meral Akşener, leader of the Good Party (IP), a key member of the opposition bloc, was the only leader sincerely congratulating Erdoğan for his victory in her brief news conference. Gone was the aggressive mood the former interior minister adopted during her previous news conferences where Erdoğan was the sole subject of criticism.
The same somber mood continued late into the night when leaders of the six parties convened at CHP headquarters. Leaders left after a one-hour meeting without making any statement.
On Monday morning, the most cheerful name on the opposition front was apparently Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu. The media-savvy mayor, who toured Türkiye along with Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavaş to drum up support for Kılıçdaroğlu, said in a social media video that, "The only thing that does not change is change itself." "We will stop expecting different results by doing the same things," he added. His remarks are interpreted as a possible future challenge to Kılıçdaroğlu’s CHP leadership. Imamoğlu was long viewed as a potential contender for the opposition bloc against Erdoğan before the alliance agreed on Kılıçdaroğlu.
Tanju Özcan, another mayor who once served as a CHP lawmaker, was among the first vocal critics of Kılıçdaroğlu after the latter’s defeat on Sunday. "You made the opposition bloc nominate yourself as a candidate and those who opposed your candidacy grinned and beared it (to defeat Erdoğan). But enough is enough. Please leave. You should spend your days with your grandchildren. You gave us hope for 13 years, but you should quit now with dignity," Özcan tweeted.
Media reports say that the CHP may convene a meeting in two months and schedule an election to vote on Kılıçdaroğlu’s leadership. The CHP leader is credited with transforming the traditionally secular party into a new political juggernaut that lost its core ideology in the process. His critics slam friendly ties with a political party linked to the terrorist group and move toward a far-right ideology contradicting the historical background of Türkiye’s oldest party.
The fate of other parties in the alliance also remains dubious. Most secured parliamentary seats in May 14 elections, thanks to Kılıçdaroğlu, and long posed as a united force despite their vastly different political views. There have been talks for the formation of a new alliance between the Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA) and the Future Party (GP), led by former members of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), along with the Bliss Party (SP), but it did not come to fruition. In the meantime, the IP is slated to convene its executive body to elect a new chair, general executive board and a central disciplinary council on June 24-26.