Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), İYİ Party, Felicity Party (SP) and the Democrat Party (DP) have decided to form an alliance for the general elections to be held on June 24, Turkish media reports said on Wednesday.
Turkey will hold snap presidential and general elections on June 24, a year and a half earlier than originally scheduled.
The four parties‘ alliance does not apply to the presidential election, in which each will field their own candidate.
According to the alliance model agreed on, the parties will make a joint declaration in which they will reveal the principles they will comply with in terms of their general political attitudes.
The four parties are expected to promise a return to a parliamentary system following the elections and the restoration of the rule of law and democratic principles in Turkey.
As a result of a referendum in April 2017, Turkey switched from parliamentary system to a presidential system of governance.
On June 24, Turkey will for the first time elect a president under the new system. Incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is the presidential candidate of both his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). These two parties set up an alliance for the presidential election.
In the meantime, the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) some of whose deputies are in jail on terror charges, has been kept outside of any election alliances made so far.