Gauging HDP's Support Next Step For Opposition After Candidate Selected

Following the announcement on 6 March that Kemal Kilicdaroglu will stand as the opposition Nation Alliance's candidate for president, the next step for the coalition is to gauge whether the Kurdish-interest People's Democratic Party (HDP) will be willing to offer its support to Kilicdaroglu and not put forward its own candidate.

• If the HDP does not run its own candidate as part of the leftist Labour and Freedom Alliance in the first round it would give a sizeable boost to the opposition's prospects of ousting incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In the 2018 election, HDP candidate Selahattin Demirtas came in third place in the first round with 8.4% of the vote. The addition of a similar vote share to Kilicdaroglu in the upcoming election could prove key if Erdogan's vote share falls below 50% (as opinion polls indicate).
• Following the announcement of Kilicdaroglu's candidacy, HDP co-leader Mithat Sancar called for talks with the Nation Alliance. The selection of centre-left Republican People's Party (CHP) head Kilicdaroglu as presidential candidate over more nationally popular figures such as Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavas or Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu was speculated to be Kilicdaroglu's more positive relations with Kurdish politicians.
• However, nationalist parties within the 'Table of Six' (another name used for the Nation Alliance) such as the Good Party (IYI) and the Futue Party (GP) are seen as being uneasy with the prospect of forming any sort of alliance with the Kurdish-interest HDP.