Opposition in Turkey Announces Candidate for May 14 Elections

Ankara, March 6 – The leader of the Republican People’s Party, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, announced the only candidate of the opposition People’s Alliance in the general elections in Turkey scheduled for May 14, and the candidate of the Republican Alliance will oppose the current President of the country, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the News Agency. Correspondence reports.

Kılıçdaroğlu’s name was announced as an opposition candidate by Temel Karamollaoğlu, Chairman of the Felicity Party. At the party’s headquarters, a meeting of the “table of six” was held (this is how experts and journalists in Turkey call the meetings of the opposition bloc), which resulted in naming the candidate from the opposition. It was expected that the alliance would be announced.

It is noteworthy that the publication of Kılıçdaroglu’s name was preceded by a struggle within the alliance. Thus, the leader of the “Good Party” Meral Aksener said earlier that the alliance no longer reflects the real interests of the people. The conflict arose due to the fact that five parties had proposed Kilicdaroglu’s candidacy, and the Ily Party intended to discuss the candidacies of the mayors of Istanbul and Ankara.

However, on Monday, the leader of the opposition Turkish Good Party, Meral Aksener, arrived at a meeting of the alliance of the six opposition parties after long meetings with the mayors of Istanbul and Ankara, Ekrem Imamoglu and Mansur Yavas. After negotiations with the mayors, Akşener held face-to-face talks with Kilicdaroglu himself to settle the differences. The two parties reportedly reached a consensus that Imamoglu and Yavas would have the powers of vice president if Kilicdaroglu was elected president.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu worked as an account specialist until 1983, then in the same year he was appointed to the General Directorate of Revenue. He worked as head of the department, and in the same institution he was appointed as deputy general manager. Then, for some time, he held the position of assistant deputy minister in the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection. In 1999 he voluntarily retired from the position of Director General of the Social Insurance Fund. For some time he taught at Hacettepe University, and served as a member of the board of directors of “Türkiye İş Bankası”.

In the November 3, 2002 elections from Istanbul, he was elected as a deputy for the Republican People’s Party in the Turkish Grand National Assembly (Parliament) in the 22nd session. He served as the head of the party caucus in Parliament. Then he submitted his candidacy for the post of party chairman. On May 22, 2010, at a party meeting, he was elected Chairman of the CHP. He is currently serving in this position.