Turkish opposition deputies switch parties to help fledgling party run

ISTANBUL/ANKARA (Reuters) – Fifteen Turkish parliamentarians from the main opposition CHP Party have switched to the fledgling Iyi Party to ensure it can run in snap June elections called by President Tayyip Erdogan, officials from CHP said on Sunday.

Erdogan this week called the snap parliamentary and presidential polls for June 24, bringing forward the vote by more than a year. The announcement caught Turkey’s troubled opposition off guard and brings Erdogan closer to his long-sought goal of a more powerful presidency with sweeping executive powers.

His most credible challenge is seen as coming from Meral Aksener, a popular former interior minister who last year founded the nationalist Iyi (“Good”) Party after splitting with the nationalist MHP, which is supporting Erdogan.

Authorities have yet to rule on whether Aksener’s Iyi Party, which has only five deputies in parliament, will be able to stand in the parliamentary polls.

With the addition of 15 new deputies from the secularist CHP, the Iyi Party should have the requisite numbers to stand in the polls, CHP officials said.

Parties with 20 or more deputies are recognized as groups in parliament and then automatically have the right to run candidates. The CHP has 116 members in the 550seat parliament after the departures.