Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, whose Justice and Development Party (AKP) has been ruling Turkey as a single-party government since 2002, has said he will run for public office for the last time in the 2023 elections, Euronews Turkish edition reported.
Erdoğan said he would ask for the nation’s support for the last time in the 2023 elections, launch the beginning of the “Century of Turkey” and then turn the “sacred flag” over to the younger generation.
His remarks came during a speech in the Black Sea province of Samsun on Sunday.
Turkey will hold both parliamentary and presidential elections in June 2023.
Erdoğan first announced in June that he would run in next year’s presidential election.
“Let me say it here. Tayyip Erdoğan is the candidate of the People’s Alliance,” Erdoğan told a party rally in the western city of İzmir, referring to an alliance between his ruling AKP and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).
An opposition bloc comprising six political parties including the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the İYİ Party have not yet announced their presidential candidate.
Erdoğan was elected president in 2014 and re-elected in 2018. His election in 2018 was under a presidential system since Turkey had switched from a parliamentary to a presidential system of governance with a referendum in 2017.
Under the presidential system, Erdoğan is accused by critics of establishing one-man rule, engaging in rampant corruption and using the state’s resources for the benefit of his family and cronies while the Turkish people are overwhelmed by the increasing cost of living caused by the depreciation of the Turkish lira and a record level of inflation at more than 80 percent, according to official figures.