Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli has said he is hopeful of agreeing on a joint presidential candidate with the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), but added that no specific name was discussed during his meeting withCHP head Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu on May 30.
The Constitutional Court ruled on May 29 that the ruling to block YouTube violated the rights of users and freedom of speech.
The Constitutional Court reviewed three separate appeals on the ban imposed on March 27 without a court decision on the YouTube. One of the applications is filed by the company itself, while the others are filed by President Metin Feyzioğlu of the Union of Turkey’s Bar Associations (TBB) and scholar Kerem Altıparmak.
The leaders of two main oppositional parties will come together May 30 to discuss upcoming presidential elections and whether they can agree on a joint candidate that would stand against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli has denied reports that he suggested to President Abdullah Gül that the latter run once more for president in August polls as part of an umbrella initiative.
“Why would we hide if we had made such a proposal?” Bahçeli said in a televised interview on May 28.
In remarkable scenes late on May 27, opposition parties joined forces for the approval of an amendment to the Labor Law, which they were able to pass due to the absence of ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputies.
The proposed amendments were penned by the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and were approved as most AKP deputies were absent. The AKP usually dominates the agenda of General Assembly sessions due to its parliamentary majority.
Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ has voiced his conviction that the top court of Turkey will dismiss an appeal from the main opposition party’s candidate to order a rerun of the contested mayoral race in the capital, regardless of the application’s merits.
The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the third largest party in the Turkish Parliament, has completely overhauled its Istanbul provincial branch, and made big changes to its operations in other provinces across the country.
The MHP also entirely replaced its provincial branch in the Black Sea province of Giresun, the party’s deputy chair in charge of organizational affairs, Şefkat Çetin, announced on May 26.
The Peoples’ Democracy Party (HDP) is opting to elect their own candidate for the upcoming presidential elections, a party group said during a visit to Hurriyet’s Ankaraoffice on May 21.
The HDP’s candidate will have high democratic values and will serve as an alternative to the ruling and main opposition’s party polarization.
Supporting the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) in a possible second round was tied to the specific candidate, the group also said.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (C) hold a meeting with a group of 10 miners from Soma representing workers who recently held a sit-in protest in front of Soma municipality after the mine disaster.
In an exceptional move, lawmakers from Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) have lent support to the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) concerning a proposal on the Labor Law.
The move on May 20 came in the aftermath of the May 13 coal mine disaster in the Soma mine in the western Anatolian province of Manisa that killed 301 miners.
CHP Kocaeli deputy Haydar Akar drafted a proposal to amend the Labor Law in order to delegalize the employment of subcontractor workers, an issue at the heart of the nation-wide debate following the Soma disaster.
The leader of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) will start, this week, consultation meetings both within the party and with nongovernmental organizations to hear proposals and to find out what qualities most Turkish citizens are looking for in a presidential candidate.
Gürsel Tekin, newly appointed secretary-general of the CHP, said the party's leader, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, would have talks with representatives of professional chambers, labor unions and major nongovernmental organizations and ask them what they would like to see in a presidential candidate.
Turkish expatriates will be entitled to vote in August’s presidential elections for the first time ever, with polling stations to be opened at 103 different diplomatic representations in 54 different countries.
Some 71 diplomatic mission buildings will serve as voting centers, while 32 other venues will be rented for voting as well.
Turkish expatriates need to ensure they are enrolled in the “Overseas Electoral Register” in order to cast their votes in the elections.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is not at risk of losing power or splitting if he is elected president, arguing that his party is different from all political parties of the past and present.
Former Prime Minister Yıldırım Akbulut, who was considered Turgut Özal’s “yes man” when the latter was elected president in 1989, has said “coordination between the president and the prime minister is a must for the sake of the governing of the country.”
Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), renewed his A-team on May 8 by appointing Istanbul Deputy Gürsel Tekin as the new secretary-general of the social democrats.
The move came after the CHP failed to perform well at the March 30 local elections and on the eve of the upcoming presidential elections in August. Kılıçdaroğlu explained the reshuffle as a need commonly expressed by the party’s various executive branches.
As the ruling party prepares for its three-day camp where it will discuss strategies for the upcoming presidential election, its spokesperson has said the decision “will not be made hastily,” as the party will “also consult with the public.”
Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli has suggested that the opposition should unite behind one candidate in the presidential election in August to stop the ruling party’s candidate.
“Turkey is going through very delicate times,” Bahçeli told daily Hürriyet in Parliament during the debate on the graft accusations against four former ministers.
The nationalist leader also criticized TV commentators who "talk "as if Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was already elected president."
In preparation for the run-up to a two-round presidential election scheduled for August, opposition parties have started to consider nominating a joint candidate.
The idea behind a joint candidate is to name the strongest possible competitor to the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) candidate, who will most likely be Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The elections scheduled for August will be different to those of the past, as Turks will be electing their president through direct voting for the first time.
Turkey’s Parliament has elected to establish a single inquiry commission to investigate corruption allegations against four former ministers of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government, with the panel set to be dominated by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) itself.
The commission, which lawmakers in the 550-seat Parliament voted by a huge majority of 453-9 to establish after a tense session May 5 that lasted 16 hours, will decide whether the former ministers will be prosecuted.
