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Are there any rivals to Turkey’s ruling party?

Commentary Materials 25 October 2017 15:04 (UTC +04:00)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly said that the country needs a new and strong opposition party that can compete with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Are there any rivals to Turkey’s ruling party?

Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 25

By Rufiz Hafizoglu – Trend:

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly said that the country needs a new and strong opposition party that can compete with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Recently, creation of a new political party called “İyi Parti” (Good Party), headed by Meral Aksener, who was previously expelled from the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), has been announced.

It was expected that after Aksener announces creation of the new party, some of the MPs from the AKP and MHP, who were allegedly dissatisfied with the policy of their political organizations, would join the ranks of Aksener’s party.

But if one reads the composition of the party’s founders, one may see that besides Aksener, the party has no strong political figures that could influence the course of the presidential, parliamentary and municipal elections to be held in Turkey in 2019.

Considering this, one can already say that it will be difficult for the party, created by Aksener, to overcome the 10 percent threshold in the parliamentary election.

If before the presidential, parliamentary and municipal elections such opposition parties as Aksener’s party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) cannot achieve serious political success, they may create a coalition, which, however, isn’t expected to include MHP. Only such a coalition could compete with the AKP in the parliamentary, municipal and presidential elections of 2019.

It is clear that before the elections, all political parties of Turkey will try to attract the attention of citizens as much as possible, however, no political force in the country has been able to compete with the AKP so far.

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Rufiz Hafizoglu is the head of Trend Agency's Arabic news service, follow him on Twitter: @rhafizoglu

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