Ankara: Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), Turkey’s main opposition force, on Wednesday reiterated his consent to run in the 2023 presidential election as the single candidate from the six-party opposition alliance.
Turkey will hold a general election in June 2023. On June 9, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced he would be running for reelection and challenged Kilicdaroglu, his main opponent, to announce his own candidacy or the name of the candidate his bloc would be putting forward. On September 5, the CHP leader said he was ready to run himself, however his coalition partners are yet to endorse him as a common candidate.
“I want to be a candidate, but what matters is the future of the country, not individual people. Each party’s own chair may become its natural candidate. However, this is not something that should be determined by the organization. The important thing is that the six leaders determine the candidate,” Kilicdaroglu said, as quoted by the Turkish newspaper Yeni Safak.
In late February, leaders of six Turkish opposition parties, namely CHP, the Democracy and Progress Party, the Democrat Party, the Future Party, the Good Party, and the Felicity Party, signed a joint declaration outlining their plan to restore parliamentary system and reduce the president’s role should they win the elections. Part of the plan entails the overhaul of the existing presidential system, which went into force in 2018 with Erdogan’s backing.
