Voices have risen from within and outside the camp of the opposition “Republican People’s Party” for the resignation of the Turkish opposition candidate, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who lost the presidential election run-off to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last Sunday.
Although Kılıçdaroğlu, in his alliance with the “six-party table”, succeeded for the first time in history in gathering the opposition of all its spectrums, orientations, and ideologies in the face of President Erdogan, he did not succeed in defeating him, whether in the presidential or parliamentary elections.
Since the local elections that took place in 2019, in which the “Republican People’s Party” led by Kilicdaroglu snatched the presidency of the municipalities of “Istanbul” and “Ankara” from President Erdogan’s party, Kilicdaroglu enjoyed a very strong position, given that he achieved a difficult goal, especially by acquiring “Istanbul”. It was historically known that any party that wins its votes is a strong candidate because it will be the future ruler of the country, which raised many hopes among the opposition that Kilicdaroglu would be able to compete strongly with Erdogan.
However, Erdogan, as usual, broke all political taboos with his massive popular spectrum. Although Kilicdaroglu again got the votes of major cities such as Istanbul and Izmir, it was not enough to bring Erdogan down from his throne after he attracted the youth bloc, which exceeded four million in the elections, and entered the race. Elections for the first time after over the age of 18, contrary to the expectations of the opposition, which was counting on this bloc to win.
According to the official results, Erdogan won 27.73 million votes, more than 52% of the total vote, while opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu got 25.43 million votes. The participation rate in the May 28 round was 84.22%.
And now that Erdogan has been swept to the presidency, the losing presidential candidate Kilicdaroglu is on a date with a major challenge to his continued leadership of the CHP since 2010 at the 38th Ordinary General Party Congress, which will be held next summer, a congress that has been postponed from July 2023. for a year without announcing the reason for this.
Kilicdaroglu will run for the presidency of the party this time after his resounding loss in the presidential elections, which is the 12th loss in his political history to Erdogan, which enhances the chances of the opposition within the party to end its 13-year control.
Kilicdaroglu came out after his loss, on Sunday evening, in front of the audience to announce his acceptance of the result of his loss to President Erdogan, but at the same time declared that he would continue his political struggle for the sake of his people, considering that the opposition’s obtaining the support of nearly 25 million people across Turkey means ” the success of its mission.”
This announcement angered many of his party’s deputies, who called on him to resign, including Tango Ozjan, head of Bolu state, in northern Turkey, for the Republican People’s Party. Mr. Kilicdaroglu, continue?.. You organized the opposition as you want, and declared yourself a candidate! Even in spite of those who did not want it, but enough.. Please leave us, go to your grandchildren and sit next to them, you have given us hope for 13 years.. You judged us with this man… Please, 13 years is enough.”
Asli Baykal, the daughter of former Republican People’s Party leader Deniz Baykal, also attacked Kilicdaroglu, in a tweet on her Twitter account, describing him as “the dictator who will destroy the Republican People’s Party as long as he remains in the presidency of the largest Turkish opposition party.” And she added that Kılıçdaroğlu, despite his defeat in all electoral events before President Erdogan, talks about continuing his opposition, describing it as “a plague that will devour the neck of anyone who helps him to continue in office.”
In turn, former Minister of State and member of the “Republican People’s Party” Mehmet Sevign criticized Kilicdaroglu, saying: “We are unable to understand people; they do not trust us, even Meral Akchner (leader of the Good Party) warned him of that and said to him: Please do not be A candidate, because if you become a candidate, the voters will not vote for you or us.” He added, “I wish you were surprised. We have worked for the (Republican People’s) Party for years, but with the mistakes of a few people, we have removed the people’s hope for change,” explaining that “ Kilicdaroglu took their dreams away from them: “We are angry at ourselves as well as at Mr. Kemal, and therefore he must resign, but he will not do so because of his greed.” He went on to attack the “six-party table” and its leaders, saying: “Who put the table of six together, and is there basically a table Six-fold?.. They were the ones who shot Mr. Kamal from behind, and if they were going out and touring the Turkish states, the votes would have been twice as high as they are now, but they took what they wanted from him and left him alone as a loser.