ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Turkey’s largest opposition alliance Monday appointed Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the country’s oldest opposition party, as their presidential candidate to race against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Six Turkish parties, consisting of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and smaller parties, have formed the “Table of Six” group, also known as Nation Alliance, in a bid to defeat Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections.
The six parties announced to a crowd of their supporters in Ankara late Monday that their candidate for the presidential election is Kilicdaroglu. The controversial nomination of the 74-year-old politician came days after Meral Aksener, leader of the IYI Party, second largest member of the alliance, refused to support his candidacy, mentioning two prominent CHP mayors as alternatives.
She said on Friday that all other five parties had proposed Kilicdaroglu, claiming that the alliance “no longer reflects the will of the nation.” She added that Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu and Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavas can do better if one of them races against Erdogan as they had already defeated his candidates during the 2019 local elections.
Kilicdaroglu said in a speech to the crowd late Monday that their agenda includes “peace and brotherhood.”
“We are the largest family. There should be fruitful, nice and happy days in Turkey. God willing, we will achieve this together. We as the Nation Alliance will govern Turkey through counselling and compromise,” he added moments before his candidacy was officially announced.
The alliance has also signed a roadmap to change the current presidential system to a parliamentary one.
As per the 12-point document, the heads of the other five parties will become deputies to Kilicdaroglu if they win the elections until the system is changed to parliamentary. Then Istanbul and Ankara mayors will replace the party leaders as deputies to the president.
CHP is the oldest Turkish party, formed by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk - founder of modern Turkey. It has 134 seats in the 600-seat legislature.
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