ISTANBUL, Turkey — Abdullah Gul, the former president of Turkey, announced on Saturday that he is not running in the June 24 presidential election because he did not receive a “broad consensus” from the opposition parties.
“I had said that if there is a broad consensus, I will do what overtakes me. Mr. Temel [Karamollaoglu]’s meetings [with the opposition parties] did not reach such a consensus. Therefore, there is no question about my candidacy,” explained Gul at a press conference in Istanbul, referring to the leader of Saadat (Felicity) Party, or SP.
Gul was Turkey’s 11th president from 2007-2014. He reportedly left office due to disagreements between him and the then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the current president of Turkey.
Gul had said that he resigned voluntarily. He said when he left office as president that he “clearly” would not be involved in politics.
He has been seen as the strongest candidate to challenge Erdogan in the June election, and his decision may disappoint some opposition parties. His possible candidacy had been seen as betrayal by officials in Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Some people called Gul a “coward” and commented that “he has been threatened,” Rudaw reported from the press conference.
Erdogan announced the snap presidential, provincial, and parliamentary elections on April 17. They were approved on April 20 by parliament.
The bill calling for a snap election was passed by 386 members of the ruling AKP, the opposition CHP, and the nationalist MHP, according to state-run Anadolu Agency.
The pro-Kurdish HDP walked out of the parliament in protest when it came time to vote.
Shortly after Erdogan’s announcement, however, the Turkish parliament approved a seventh extension of the state of emergency, imposed after the attempted coup of July 2016.
The election will take place under the emergency measures.
This will be the first time Turkey goes to the polls after constitutional reforms that gave the presidency unprecedented powers, such as dissolving the prime ministry and changing to a presidential system of governance.
Last updated at 3:18 p.m.
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