Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is keeping everyone on edge by not announcing whether he will run in Turkey’s first direct presidential elections Aug. 10. It he does, however, he's slated for an easy win. But if he decides not to run, any candidate his Justice and Development Party (AKP) puts up will have a serious head start in the race.
One principal reason for this is the disarray among the two main opposition parties in parliament. There is just over two months to go before Turks head to the ballot box, but these parties have still not been able to produce credible candidates who might upset the AKP’s political plans.
The only thing the Republican People's Party (CHP) and the Nationalist Action Party (MHP) — the two principal opposition parties in parliament — agree on currently is their desire to prevent Erdogan from becoming president. Both parties believe that Erdogan, who has shown increasing authoritarian tendencies and has made no secret of his intention to act like an executive president if elected, must be stopped.
But neither party has been able to come up with a credible joint candidate or their own separate candidates to run against Erdogan, or an AKP candidate, who has the slightest chance of winning. How they expect the person or persons they will inevitably nominate to introduce themselves to the electorate and promote their political platforms in the short time left is unclear.
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