Mansur Yavaş, mayor of Ankara from the Republican People’s Party (CHP), said in a statement on Monday regarding discussions about the presidential candidacy, “I think it’s very early to be deciding on a candidate. The election date isn’t fixed. Conditions in Turkey could change by then.”
Yavaş added, “With the current economic crisis, my priority is that candidates don’t wear each other out and that the public doesn’t get preoccupied with this. I believe all political parties, especially the opposition, should unite and address today’s deep poverty.”
Speaking at an event in Ankara titled “Are We Prepared for an Earthquake?”, Yavaş was asked whether his statement meant he wouldn’t be a candidate if there was a primary within his party to choose the presidential candidate. Yavaş responded, “Is that even possible? I’m just saying it’s too early for candidacies. Let’s wait and see.”
Yavaş believes the government will opt for an early election: “Even though they talk about 2028, I don’t think they can hold out until 2028. We also want it to happen as soon as possible so that citizens can be relieved of this hardship.”
Debate over early elections
Since winning as the first-place party in the March 31, 2024 local elections, the CHP has been increasingly calling for early elections in recent months. Operations targeting Istanbul’s Esenyurt and Beşiktaş municipalities, along with investigations launched against Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, have accelerated the process. After two investigations were opened against İmamoğlu, CHP Chairman Özgür Özel stated that they would decide on the party’s presidential candidate. Last week, during the party’s group meeting, he said the CHP members would choose the party’s presidential candidate.
In remarks on Saturday in İzmir, Özel described the candidate selection process as follows: “The collective wisdom now is that our candidate should be decided. We said, ‘Let’s determine it with the broadest participation.’ Who is the broadest participation? The nearly 1.6 million members of the Republican People’s Party. Here’s the process we defined: We said, ‘Let’s open memberships and invite anyone who wants to have a say in choosing the presidential candidate to join the Republican People’s Party, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s party.’ Right now, the number of online memberships has been growing ten- to twelve-fold per day.”
Within the CHP, the internal election to choose the presidential candidate is planned for March 30. The names most frequently mentioned as potential candidates are İmamoğlu and Yavaş.
