With less than a month remaining for the presidential and parliamentary elections, resignations continue to plague the newly established Good Party (İP). Most recently, the founding member and general board member of the İP, Ruhat Mengi, resigned from her duties, blaming the party of being different than it is being portrayed
Turkey’s opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) has unveiled its election manifesto ahead of the June 24 early elections. The manifesto, with a tagline “National Revival, Blessed Uprising”, calls for reforms to bring economic relief to farmers, retired people and families of disabled, martyred people and veterans.
The MHP election manifesto emphasized five topics, including "Smart state and public administration", "justice", "combatting corruption", "multifaceted and multi-dimensional foreign policy" and "industrialization and SMEs."
The leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) on May 26 unveiled his party’s election manifesto, which vowed to find solutions to “five main problems of Turkey.”
Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu read out his party’s 230-page declaration, prepared under the slogan “We are coming for the nation,” in the capital Ankara. He also introduced the CHP candidates running for parliament in the June 24 early elections.
The OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) formally opened its election observation mission in Turkey on May 24 for the snap presidential and parliamentary elections to take place on June 24.
Along with 12 experts based in Ankara, 22 long-term observers and will be deployed throughout the country, OSCE Ambassador Audrey Glover told reporters in Ankara on May 24.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is planning to deploy 28 long-term and 350 short-term observers to follow Turkey’s presidential and parliamentary elections on June 24.
If elected, İYİ (Good) Party leader Meral Akşener promised on May 18 “to lift Turkey’s state of emergency the day after the snap elections.”
“The state of emergency will be lifted the day after I’m elected,” Akşener said, addressing thousands who had gathered for a weekly airing of broadcaster Halk TV’s interview program.
“I will find a trustworthy logistics firm,” she said, declaring her objectives set to be accomplished on June 24 if she gets elected in the snap polls.
Muharrem İnce, the presidential nominee of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), has vowed a new constitution reinstalling a strong parliamentary system guaranteeing democracy and the rule of law if elected in the June 24 snap election.
İnce unveiled his election manifesto on May 19, the 99th anniversary of the launch of the War of Independence by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the modern Republic of Turkey in Samsun, a Black Sea costal city from where Atatürk started a three-year war against occupying forces in 1919.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s spokesperson İbrahim Kalın has denied any new peace process with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), after a chief presidential advisor suggested that such an initiative could be launched after the June 24 snap election.
“Our president’s agenda does not include such a solution process. The struggle against the PKK will continue,” Kalın said in a written statement issued on May 18.
There are a total of 59.4 million eligible voters in Turkey and abroad, Supreme Election Board (YSK) Chairman Sadi Güven said on May 14. According to Güven, there are 56.34 million eligible voters in Turkey and 3 million Turkish expats entitled to cast their votes in the June 24 snap presidential and parliamentary elections.
The number of first-time voters is 1.65 million, while a total of 180,869 ballot boxes will be set up on polling day, Güven added. Turkish expats will vote in 60 countries at 123 diplomatic representations.
The lawyers of Selahattin Demirtaş, the presidential candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), have appealed for his release from jail, saying his official candidacy constitutionally necessitates active participation in the election period.
Demirtaş’s lawyers appealed to the Ankara 19th High Criminal Court on May 15 demanding his release, stating that Turkey’s constitution and European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) legislation stipulates the “right to a free election.”
The government conducts and will carry out projects to empower Turkish women whose rights and access to employment are often overlooked in male-dominated society.
In his party's manifesto ahead of the June 24 elections, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has pledged to end "every tradition of the age of ignorance targeting women." The Ministry of Family and Social Justice already works to empower women with projects to improve gender equality for women, which have lagged behind men in every field, courtesy of a patriarchal mindset.
Muharrem İnce, the main opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) presidential candidate, has urged all candidates to focus on projects rather than engaging in a war of words.
Muharrem İnce, the main opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) presidential candidate, has vowed he will never use the presidential powers granted by the 2017 referendum on constitutional amendments in the event that he is elected as president.
“There are vast powers given to the president. But I will not use them. I will be afraid to,” İnce said at an event with representatives of civil society organizations in the Black Sea province of Trabzon on May 11.
People are standing in long queues outside civil registry offices across the country to be registered as voters for the upcoming June 24 presidential and parliamentary elections.
The voter lists have already been posted at neighborhood councils for people to check if their names are on the list as eligible voters. The deadline to notify authorities of change of address is May 12.
Revealing her party’s economic program ahead of the June 24 snap elections, İYİ (Good) Party leader Meral Akşener has vowed to restructure the debts of 4.5 million Turkish citizens, worth 8 billion liras, through a project called the “Turkey Solidarity Fund.”
The presidential candidate for Turkey's main opposition on May 5 called for the release of Selahattin Demirtaş, former co-chair of Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), challenging President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to "let us race like men" in next month's snap elections.
On May 4, the Republican People's Party (CHP) nominated Muharrem İnce to challenge Erdoğan in the June 24 presidential election. The Kurdish issue-focused HDP nominated its jailed former leader Selahattin Demirtaş.
The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP)'s parliamentary group officially announced on Friday that its candidate for the upcoming presidential elections on June 24 would be Muharrem İnce, its Yalova deputy.
İnce was seen as the strongest possible candidate by political circles close the party, while CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu made it clear that he will not run for president, a decision criticized by some party members as well.
The state of emergency “should be lifted” and imprisoned journalists should be released ahead of the upcoming elections on June 24, the Turkish Journalists Association (TGC) said in a statement to mark World Press Freedom Day on May 3.
“We have been considering the necessity of lifting the state of emergency, releasing journalists in jail, the return of fundamental rights and freedoms to the citizens for healthy elections,” it said.
Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), IYI Party (Good Party), Felicity Party (SP) and Democrat Party (DP) agreed early Wednesday to form an alliance for the June 24 elections against the People's Alliance.
