Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ruled out early elections again this week, but speculation that the government could still surprise Turkey with an early vote has parties jostling to pick popular presidential candidates and form electoral alliances.

Out of the scrum has emerged an unexpected power broker: the small Islamist Saadet Party, or Felicity Party, led by Temel Karamollaoglu, a mild-mannered former engineer who has been courted by players across the spectrum, including the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Saadet, which garnered less than 1% of the vote in the last general election and receives no state funding, is positioning itself as Turkey’s party of consensus, pointing to its principles of social justice and welfare to appeal to left-leaning voters and its deep roots in political Islam as its conservative badge.

“We are the only political movement that can stop the polarization in Turkey because we can sit down and speak with everyone, accepting our differences,” Karamollaoglu, 76, told Al-Monitor in an interview. “Ours can be a platform of social democrats, nationalists, Kurdish voters and those who previously supported the AKP but are now disillusioned. We are seen as an antidote to the country’s polarization.”