Muharrem İnce, the People’s Republican Party’s (CHP) candidate in the presidential election of June 24 who lost to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, told columnist Ahmet Hakan of the Hürriyet newspaper that he is ready to present himself as a candidate for mayor of İstanbul in the local elections of March 2019.
Hakan wrote in his column today that the failed presidential candidate called him to say he is ready to run on condition that there be a primary election with the participation of some 250,000 CHP members in İstanbul. İnce added that he can stand as a candidate for mayor of İstanbul if he is nominated by those members.
“İstanbul means all of Turkey. If our members take action, we can win this. If we take İstanbul, this success would become a national story, and eventually we can win the presidential election,” İnce said.
After twice standing for election for CHP chairman against the incumbent, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, İnce was nominated as the CHP’s presidential candidate in the June 24 presidential election, in which he received 30 percent of the vote to Erdoğan’s 52 percent.
İnce and Kılıçdaroğlu also criticized each other following the presidential election, and some CHP deputies unsuccessfully attempted to collect enough signatures for an emergency convention in order to replace Kılıçdaroğlu with İnce as chairman.