Turkey’s current president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, will have to face three other candidates in the presidential elections scheduled for May 14 in the country despite the controversy over his own candidacy because, technically, he has already served his two terms.
The country’s Supreme Electoral Board has thus endorsed the opposition leader and Erdogan’s main rival, Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, the president of the center-left Fatherland Party, Muharrem Ince, and the ultranationalist Sinan Ogan, of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).
From this list, which has already been published in the Official State Gazette, Ince has previous experience given that he ran against Erdogan in the 2018 presidential election. Among the allies of the government are precisely the MHP and the Big Unity Party (BBP).
Kiliçdaroglu, for his part, represents a large opposition coalition made up of six parties including nationalists, secularists and Islamists. These elections are a major test for Erdogan, who has been in power for 20 years and is now facing serious problems in dealing with the economic crisis.
The latest polls on voting intentions point to a close race between Erdogan and the opposition leader, who has called for support from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party, the second largest opposition party in parliament.
To emerge victorious in the first round of the presidential election, candidates must win more than 50 percent of the support. Otherwise, the junta, which has rejected the appeals filed by the opposition against Erdogan’s candidacy, has scheduled a run-off election for May 28.
Opponents insist that Erdogan is in violation of the Constitution, which provides for a maximum of two terms. However, Erdogan has shielded himself behind the 2017 constitutional reform and pointed out that this amendment reset the counter to zero.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
