Majority of Turks think public should name opposition’s presidential candidate

Some 61.1 percent of Turkish citizens say that the public should name the opposition’s presidential candidate for the June 2023 elections, according to a new poll.

Tuesday November 29 2022 11:17 pm

This file photo shows CHP Istanbul Mayor İmamoğlu (L), CHP leader Kılıçdaroğlu and CHP Ankara Mayor Yavaş (R)

Duvar English

Metropoll Research has conducted a new survey which asked participants “How do you think the presidential candidate of the opposition bloc should be chosen?” for the upcoming elections that were scheduled to be held in June 2023.

Some 61.1 percent of the respondents answered this question by saying “it should be based on the public's choice,” whereas 20 percent said “‘Table of Six’ should choose it.”

The results of the survey were shared by the company’s owner Özer Sencar on Twitter.

Muhalafetin başkan adayı nasıl belirlenmeli? pic.twitter.com/SswY7oDCTx
— Ozer Sencar (@ozersencar1) November 28, 2022

“Table of Six” is the name of alliance of the six opposition parties that are united to change Turkey’s presidential regime, consisting the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), centre-right İYİ (Good) Party, Islamist Felicity (Saadet) Party, Democrat Party (DP), DEVA (Democracy and Progress) Party, and Future (Gelecek) Party.

The leaders of the six parties meet regularly and discuss how they will approach the elections and transform the political system of the country should they come to power.

11.10 percent of the respondents said all opposition parties should be involved in the nomination process. For example, Pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), which ranked as the third highest party in the 2018 elections after the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the CHP, are not officially a part of the Table of Six.

On the other hand, 62.2 percent of the AKP respondents also said that the opposition’s candidate should be named by the public, whereas this figure declines to 52.7 percent for the CHP voters.

10.2 percent of the AKP respondents said that the leaders of the six opposition parties should determine their candidate, whereas this figure jumps to 36.5 for the CHP respondents and 34.6 for the İYİ Party.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has already announced his candidacy for the presidency. While some senior CHP figures claimed that Kılıçdaroğlu will be their candidate, there is no official announcement yet.

Some experts say that CHP’s Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu or Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavaş should run for presidency because Kılıçdaroğlu may not attract enough conservative voters from the ruling alliance. They also think that Erdoğan's election campaign may prevail against Kılıçdaroğlu because of the former's rhetoric.

The HDP officials also say they are very open to having “a joint candidate” as long as their principles are satisfied.