Turkey opposition candidate Muharrem Ince pulls out of presidential election
Muharrem Ince at a news conference in Ankara, Turkey, Monday, Feb. 8, 2021. – Copyright AP/Copyright 2021 The AP. All rights reserved
Muharrem Ince, the leader of Turkey’s centre-left Homeland Party, has pulled out of the May 14 presidential election, giving a potential boost to incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s main challenger.
A candidate in Turkey’s presidential election announced Thursday that he is withdrawing from the race.
Muharrem Ince, the leader of the centre-left Homeland Party, was one of four contenders running for president in the May 14 election.
The move is likely to bolster President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s main challenger.
He had come under intense criticism for splintering the votes of the six-party Nation Alliance, which has united behind the candidacy of main opposition party leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, and for possibly forcing the presidential race into a second round.
“I am withdrawing from the race,” Ince told reporters. “I am doing this for my country.”
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Ince had polled around 8% of the votes when his candidacy was first announced, but his popularity ratings have since dropped to around 2%, according to opinion surveys.
Ince, however, said the Homeland Party, which he formed in 2021, would still run in the parliamentary elections, and he called for votes for the party “from each household.”
The 58-year-old former physics teacher had previously run against Erdoğan in presidential elections in 2018 under the ticket of Kilicdaroglu’s main opposition party, CHP.
He had garnered around 30% of the votes but later broke away from the party.
