Presidential and parliamentary elections in Turkey will be held on May 14, after the holy month of Ramadan, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said today in a reference to the electoral triumph of the (conservative) Democratic Party in 1950.
Without clearly announcing the date of the elections, the head of state hinted that they would take place “73 years” after the victory of the (conservative) Democratic Party in 1950.
“Our nation will give its response to the ‘Table of Six’ [the opposition platform] on the same day that marks 73 years,” he told lawmakers from his AKP party in parliament.
Ramadan and the fasting it imposes on believers will be from March 23 to April 21 this year.
The AKP, the Justice and Development Party, has been in power since 2002.
Erdogan, who will be running again, became prime minister in 2003 before amending the Constitution and becoming president, elected directly by the people in a universal suffrage vote in 2014.
The opposition announced its intention to return to the parliamentary system in the event of victory.
The Democratic Party, founded in 1946 by Adnan Menderes and his supporters, who had left the party of Mustafa Kemal “Atatürk,” founder of modern Turkey, won the elections on May 14, 1950, before being overthrown ten years later by a military coup and subsequently dissolved.
Erdogan often compares himself to Adnan Menderes, thereby sending a message to the conservative wing of the electorate.
The “Table of Six” is an electoral alliance of six opposition parties, including the largest, the Republican People's Party, CHP (heir to Mustafa Kemal).
Only the (pro-Kurdish, democratic left-wing) HDP, the third largest parliamentary force, is not participating in this alliance.
