Turkish opposition parties agree to field joint candidate to oust President Erdoğan

The leaders of six opposition parties in Turkey have agreed on putting forward a joint candidate to run against incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the elections slated for June 2023.

The parties include the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), the nationalist Good Party (İP), the Islamist Felicity Party (SP) and the Democrat Party (DP).

Others are; former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s Future Party (GP) and ex-Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan’s Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA).

The leaders of these parties reached the agreement at a meeting held on Saturday, the joint statement said and was made available to reporters.

The meeting lasted seven hours, the Haberler daily said.

This is the first time for leaders of the opposition in Turkey to announce publicly a joint nominee against Erdogan, himself the only nominee of the People’s Alliance.

Although the statement does not name a particular candidate, it assured the nation that the joint nominee would become the 13th president of Turkey, of all the people of Turkey.

According to the leaders, not just the six political parties supporting the nomination, but more other persons.

Earlier, CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said that the opposition parties united in the Nation Alliance would announce their presidential nominee when the date for the presidential elections was made official.

The leaders of the six opposition parties would hold a second round of consultations on Oct. 2 – a day after Parliament’s autumn session opens.

This time the meeting would be hosted by CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

(BTA/NAN)