“Democratic Peoples” exacerbates Erdogan’s troubles by calling on its supporters to vote for his opponent
The leftist and pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and its allies on Friday called for a vote for Kemal Kilicdaroglu, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s main rival in Turkey’s May 14 presidential elections, in a move that further boosts the chances of the Turkish opposition candidate to end two decades of Erdogan’s rule.
“In this historic election, we call on the people of Turkey to vote for Kemal Kilicdaroglu in the presidential election,” the Labor and Freedom Alliance, dominated by Turkey’s third largest political party, the Democratic People’s Party (HDP), said in a statement.
At the end of March, the HDP gave tacit support to Kilicdaroglu by announcing that it would not field a candidate in its own ranks for the presidential elections.
“Our objectives are in line, that is why we have decided to support Kilicdaroglu,” Medhat Sinjar, the party’s chairman, said in an interview published Friday in the Suzhou daily.
The HDP’s goal is to give the opposition a chance to win the first round, Sinjar said. “In order to get the country out of this darkness, we have to get rid of this one-man system,” he said.
Opinion polls show Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who heads a coalition of six opposition parties, is well positioned against President Erdogan.
The HDP, which dissolved its candidate in the 2018 presidential election, is third with 8.4% of the vote as a kingmaker in the presidential election.
The Turkish government accuses the PKK of being linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an armed group designated as “terrorist” by Ankara and its Western allies.
The party’s main figure, Selahattin Demirtas, has been in jail since the end of 2016 on charges of “terrorist propaganda”.
Threatened with a ban, the party will field candidates in legislative elections also scheduled for May 14.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been infected with an intestinal virus, suspended his campaign activities Friday for a third day, 16 days ahead of a seemingly heated presidential and legislative vote.
The 69-year-old president will only speak by video conference from the presidential palace in Ankara during the inauguration of a bridge in the southern town of Adana, according to the program announced by the Turkish presidency.
Erdogan, who has been in power for 20 years, canceled all his commitments since Tuesday night, including the much-anticipated inauguration of Turkey’s first nuclear power plant.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was forced to make a video address Thursday at the opening of the Akyuyo power station in southern Turkey, showing signs of fatigue, in his first television appearance in nearly 48 hours.
On Thursday afternoon, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced that Erdogan had gastroenteritis. “He is in good shape. The effects of gastroenteritis have declined. He will resume his program as soon as possible.”
The crisis is not timely for the country’s president, as 3.4 million Turks registered to vote abroad began casting their ballots on Thursday.
Erdogan, who has been in power since 2003, faces first as prime minister and then as head of the opposition, which has formed a united front that has put it in a good position, according to results of several opinion polls.
