[ad_1]
Issued on:
Muharrem Ince is best remembered outside Turkey for his spirited campaign against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2018’s presidential polls. Ahead of May 14 elections, Turkey’s six main opposition parties have united behind Kemal Kilicdaroglu – and Ince’s candidacy threatens to split the anti-Erdogan vote.
The big story of the 2018 Turkish presidential elections was that many Western observers thought Muharrem Ince’s energetic campaign would force Erdogan into a second-round run-off – but the wily Turkish president was re-elected in the first round with 52 percent of the vote while Ince garnered just 30 percent.
Back then, Ince was the candidate of the secularist Republican People’s Party (CHP). But this time around the CHP chose Kemal Kilicdaroglu as its standard-bearer in the contest against Erdogan – and, anxious to avoid a split vote, Turkey’s five other main opposition parties put aside their differences to rally around him as part of the Nation Alliance. Even the Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP), the third force in Turkish politics, has endorsed Kilicdaroglu.
>> Read more: Tempest in a teashop: Turks bitterly divided in Erdogan stronghold ahead of presidential vote
But Ince, a former secondary school physics teacher, is standing for the Turkish presidency anyway – provoking chagrin among many in the Turkish opposition.
“The opposition has united behind Kilicdaroglu, so now it takes a dim view of Ince’s candidacy because it jeopardises the possibility of a first-round victory against Erdogan,” said Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Research Program at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
“It’s in Erdogan’s interest to see Ince perform well.”
‘Divisive for the Turkish opposition’
That creates a real challenge for Kilicdaroglu, who held a…
[ad_2]
Source : france24
