Turkey’s opposing camps seek to broaden base ahead of May elections
The rapprochement between Erdogan’s People’s Alliance and the Kurdish Islamist Huda-Par, seen as the successor of Hezbollah, annoys nationalists, while the move toward arch-conservative New Welfare alarms women.
IZMIR, Turkey — As the date for Turkey’s crucial dual elections was officially set for May 14, the two main alliances started the week with efforts to broaden their electoral base as they trampled over political fault lines.
The moves for broadening the electoral base come as several polls compiled by Reuters show that the opposition's presidential candidate, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, has up to a 10% advantage against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Kilicdaroglu, picked as the opposition candidate amid unexpected drama last week, said on Monday that preparations were underway with his meeting with the co-chairs of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP). The meeting with the third largest party in parliament — and a likely kingmaker in the two-horse presidential race — is expected to occur this week. But unlike Kilicdaroglu’s overtures to left-wing parties earlier, it may create fractures with his reluctant ally, Meral Aksener of the Iyi Party. Aksener said that while she had no objections to a meeting between the HDP and Kilicdaroglu’s Republican People’s Party (CHP), the HDP had no place in the opposition’s alliance known as the Table of Six. Kilicdaroglu retorted that he would visit the HDP as the opposition’s presidential candidate, not as CHP chair.
On the other hand, Erdogan turned to two Islamist parties, the Free Cause Party (Huda Par) and the New Welfare Party (Yeniden Refah). Last week, Erdogan met with Kurdish Islamist Huda Par’s chairman Zekariya Yapicioglu for the second time this year. After the meeting, Yapicioglu announced his party would not select a presidential candidate but would support Erdogan’s candidacy. On the same day, two senior members of Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) visited the headquarters of New Welfare, meeting with its chair, Fatih Erbakan — the son of former premier Necmettin Erbakan, the president’s mentor.
