TURKISH OPPOSITION NAMES MEN TO TAKE ON ERDOGAN

▶ Main opposition Republican People’s Party nominates legislator Muharrem Ince to run for the presidency

Turkish opposition parties on Friday nominated candidates to run against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in next month’s election.

Mr Erdogan called the June 24 election more than a year earlier than planned, and the opposition parties have been scrambling to decide on candidates.

Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) nominated legislator Muharrem Ince for the presidency, while the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) said its imprisoned former leader Selahattin Demirtas would stand.

The election is hugely important as it will turn Turkey’s governing system into an executive presidency, a constitutional change that was narrowly approved last year in a referendum.

As part of the reforms, the office of the prime minister would be abolished with its powers largely transferred to the president.

The successful candidate needs to secure more than 50 per cent of the vote.

At a congress in Ankara, Mr Ince said he would represent all of Turkey’s 80 million citizens. He has accused Mr Erdogan of undermining Turkey’s democracy, and has been in Parliament since 2002, representing his hometown of Yalova in the west of the country.

The former physics teacher, who is known for his combative speech, removed his CHP lapel pin to put on a Turkish flag pin.

“We will first establish justice. We will be impartial. We will be independent,” said Mr Ince, 54.

The CHP has been critical of Mr Erdogan for his “one-man rule”, scrapping the customary impartiality of the presidency.

Mr Erdogan told a crowd in Istanbul on Friday that he had always promised to be a “different president” who would not shirk responsibility. He has been on the road for months shoring up support with several speeches each day.

The CHP has also slammed Ankara for a “civilian coup” through a massive crackdown after a failed 2016 uprising against the government.

More than 50,000 people were arrested and another 110,000 were dismissed from their public posts for alleged links to USbased cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Mr Erdogan accuses of planning the coup.

Mr Gulen denies involvement and the crackdown soon grew wider to include opposition politicians, journalists, activists and other dissenting voices. The government said the measures were necessary to combat terror.

Among those jailed is the Mr Demirtas, who was arrested in November 2016 pending trial on terror charges for alleged links to outlawed Kurdish militants. Eight other HDP politicians and nearly 4,700 HDP administrators and activists are imprisoned.

The HDP announced its nomination of Mr Demirtas on Friday simultaneously in Istanbul and Diyarbakir, the predominantly Kurdish south-eastern province.

Mr Demirtas accepted the nomination with a letter from his prison in western Turkey, saying he was a “political hostage”. He called on supporters to “be my hand, my arm, my voice, my breath”.

The former human rights lawyer ran against Mr Erdogan in Turkey’s first direct presidential election in 2014, winning 9.7 per cent of votes. He and his co-leader Figen Yuksekdag, who is also jailed, led the left-leaning party to parliament in two general elections during 2015.

It is unclear if Turkey’s electoral board will approve Mr Demirtas’s candidacy. There have been no guilty verdicts in the continuing cases against him and he remains a parliamentarian, theoretically eligible to run.

Also in the running for the presidency is centre-right Iyi Party leader Meral Aksener, a former interior minister who is considered a serious contender.