World News | Turkish parties rush to save coalition against Erdogan

ANKARA, March 6 (AP) – Opposition politicians on Monday sought to salvage an organization that has been thrown into turmoil by nominating a coalition candidate to challenge President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in elections scheduled for May. alliance.

Meral Aksener, who leads the nationalist Iyi party, broke away from the six-party coalition on Friday, rejecting the possible nomination of Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).

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Aksener went on to call for Ankara and Istanbul’s popular mayoral opposition leadership from the CHP party and stand in elections in place of Kilicdaroglu.

With less than three months before presidential and parliamentary elections, Aksener’s break with the coalition is seen as a major boost to Erdogan, whose approval ratings have been battered by a weakening economy and his government’s response to last month’s devastating earthquake. response is affected.

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Former interior minister Aksener reportedly backed one of the mayors over Kilicdaroglu, who failed to win national elections during his 13 years leading the CHP.

The two mayors’ support for Erdogan has always been higher than that for Kilidaroglu.

On Monday, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu and Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavas met Aksener in an apparent attempt to persuade her to return to the alliance.

“We have an election in front of us. Separation cannot be tolerated in our country,” Yavas told reporters.

Aksener and Kilicdaroglu then met, during which the two discussed a compromise solution whereby the mayor could be nominated as vice president, an Iyi party spokesman said.

Hamish Kinnear, Middle East and North Africa analyst at risk intelligence firm Verisk Maplecroft, said the opposition would still be able to rally behind a joint candidate.

“But time is running out for the opposition coalition … and a golden opportunity to step up against Erdogan after February’s devastating earthquake has been missed,” he said.

On Saturday, Erdogan took a dig at the divided opposition.

“We said months ago that this would be the case. They sat down, they talked, and they dispersed – as I said,” Erdogan said. (Associated Press)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)