Opposition parties face a joint candidate dilemma in Ankara and İstanbul

Özel and İmamoğlu attend an opening ceremony in İstanbul Sunday. © CHP

ANKARA – With four months to go till the 2024 local elections, Turkey’s opposition parties have yet to decide on whether they’ll field joint candidates in the nation’s two largest cities – as they did in the 2019 elections.

In September, the nationalist İYİ Party announced it would run its own candidates for all 81 provinces, however, sources in the party told Turkey recap they were open to joint candidate proposals from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) for İstanbul and Ankara. 

The CHP, meanwhile, appeared to be waiting for the İYİ Party’s current crisis – involving multiple resignations and allegations of corruption – to subside before making a new move. 

Then Tuesday, new CHP chair Özgur Özel broke the deadlock and took what might be the first step in pre-election planning by requesting to meet with İYİ Party chair Meral Akşener Thursday (tomorrow).

The high-stakes meeting comes as many in the nation’s capital have been anxiously waiting for joint candidate negotiations to begin, with some warning the CHP could lose its hold on the İstanbul and Ankara municipalities without a revived İYİ Party alliance.