Faction of Turkey's CHP urges 'extraordinary opposition' to stop Erdogan
A group within Turkey’s main opposition party has launched a movement to better challenge the Justice and Development Party ahead of crucial elections in 2019.
A crucial election cycle awaits Turkey in 2019. Barring the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) calling early elections, voters will go to the polls for municipal elections in March 2019 and for presidential and parliamentary elections in November that same year. The presidential polls will mark the formal transition to the presidential system narrowly approved in a 2017 referendum. With President Recep Tayyip Erdogan the leading contender for the powerful position, the state of Turkey’s opposition remains a major concern for those who view the polls as the last chance to stop Erdogan.
With Turkey under emergency rule since the July 2016 coup attempt, the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has failed to provide much hope to government opponents amid a ferocious crackdown on opposition groups and the media. CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu is under fire from both his own base and the country’s secular and leftist quarters over what many see as toothless leadership and bad decisions at critical moments.
