Candidate suggests dissolution of opposition alliance to be a part of it

A presidential candidate who now needs 100,000 signatures to be nominated for the coming elections in Turkey suggested during a broadcast on Tuesday the dissolution of an opposition alliance and its reestablishment with his party joining in.

Muharrem Ince, the former presidential candidate of the opposition Nation Alliance in the 2018 elections and leader of Homeland Party, said that the opposition Nation Alliance is now based not on principles but interests.

He said:

"Can we have an alliance? Sure we can. I'm suggesting a new alliance of CHP [main opposition Republican People's Party], Good Party and Homeland Party. It will be fantastic. Issues won't be raised over Ataturk, secularism, independence. There will be no discussion over the first four articles of the constitution, no discussion over Turkey's national flag. None over religious cults. This is how you should make an alliance. There are two types of alliances. One type is based on principles, the other on interests."

Pointing out that the ruling People's Alliance of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) was an alliance based on interests, he claimed that the Nation Alliance was similar, and that vice presidencies, ministries and seats in the parliament would be handed out in exchange for the support of four small parties in the presidential election."

"They haven't been able to rule a mere table in one and a half years, how are they going to rule Turkey?" he asked.

"It's not enough to send Erdogan away, there is a next episode. Turkey is faced with a government problem, but the opposition problem is even more urgent. We've got to send away this opposition so that we can send away the government."

CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu is the presidential candidate of the six-party Nation Alliance and he is now likely to receive the support of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) who received 11-13% of the popular vote in the past three elections.

Ince earlier left CHP to found Homeland Party in May 2021. Although the party has not been listed in recent polls conducted by six different pollsters because its voter base is too insignificant, Ince may still receive enough votes in the 14 May presidential election to prevent Kilicdaroglu or Recep Tayyip Erdogan from winning in the first round.