Meral Akşener, the head of the Turkish opposition’s Good Party (IP), on Tuesday tore into her pro-alliance members for arguing the party will lose against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in the upcoming municipal elections.
“I disagree with the claims that the Good Party will lose to the AK Party or its People’s Alliance if we compete alone in the mayoral polls,” Akşener said as she addressed a meeting in the western Manisa province amid an increasingly heated debate in opposition circles on joining forces for the local polls on March 31.
The IP has so far lost six lawmaker seats over Akşener’s rejection of the Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) offer to partner again and recreate their success in the 2019 elections.
“Good Party has been standing for six years despite many threats and injustices,” Akşener stressed.
“We haven’t built this party to be a third-wheel to the CHP against the AK Party or to win elections for the candidates of other political parties,” she said, likely referring to the disappointing 9.6% support the IP won compared to the 169 seats CHP clinched by itself in May’s legislative vote.
Akşener argued that there was an “attempt across the opposition to pin all the blame on someone” for the defeat in last May’s presidential and parliamentary elections. She also claimed the system was designed to amass the vote all political parties receive for the larger party, presumably in an alliance.
“We have adhered to the requirements of the presidential system, but nothing’s changed,” Akşener said. “We couldn’t change it in 2023 either. I admit it; I’m the one to blame. Everyone is trying to blame one another. What changes if I’m the one?”
The Turkish opposition has been in disarray with accusations since the CHP-led six-party bloc lost what was shaping up to be their best chance yet to unseat President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and gain parliamentary majority in May.
Akşener, who had been opposed to CHP’s former leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu candidacy against Erdoğan from the start, was quick to pull her party out of the alliance and blame the CHP for poor showing. She rejected newly minted CHP Chairperson Özgür Özel’s offer to team up again for the upcoming mayoral vote, essentially triggering a storm of chaos at her party.
Her resistance to competing alone has been pushing away deputies, including founding members, who believe the IP has very little chance to haul in any significant constituencies by itself. Many quitting instead endorse CHP’s Istanbul and Ankara Mayors Ekrem Imamoğlu and Mansur Yavaş, who have reportedly entered “clandestine” deals to support their campaigns.
The pair had won Türkiye’s two largest cities in 2019 polls with support from the IP and the pro-PKK Green Left Party (YSP), informally known as the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (Dem Party), and previously going by the names of HEDEP and HDP.
In a move that could quickly isolate and cost her over 5,000 members nationwide, Akşener has also been vocal about her disdain for the mayors whom she accused of “cowardice” for refusing an open call earlier this year to run for president instead of Kılıçdaroğlu against Erdoğan.
The two mayors, who were once opposition darlings, seemingly need all the help they can get as their party, the CHP, struggles to reinstate reliability with its supporter base fed up with consecutive losses of the past two decades and allies, including the IP, determined to field their own mayoral candidates in the key cities.
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