By Ahval
Not allowing Turkey’s new nationalist Good Party to compete in early elections on June 24 would delegitimise the polls, the deputy head of the party said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s announced early parliamentary and presidential elections would be held on June 24, but an election law that states that new political parties must have been established for at least six months after their inaugural party congress may bar the Good Party from taking part in the polls.
Ümit Özdağ said the Good Party had held its first ordinary congress on Dec. 10, meaning it would qualify to put up candidates in the election, but, he said, it had also held an extraordinary congress on April 1. Most observers have counted from the April 1 party congress and concluded the party would be ineligible to take part.
“The criterion that needs to be taken into account is December 10,” Özdağ told Ahval. “I’m saying this as it’s what the law states. And this is how the law has been implemented so far”, he said, in reference to how the law had previously been applied to other political parties.
“If the decision that has been applied to other parties is not applied to us, then there will clearly be a violation of the law. This is not an acceptable situation. We strongly condemn it. We don’t even want to think about such a possibility. This would clearly be the biggest blow to the elections, and it would eliminate the legitimacy of the elections,” Özdağ said.
Since the Good Party split from the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) in October last year, it has attracted strong levels of support in opinion polls, especially for its leader, Meral Akşener, who has pledged to challenge Erdoğan in the presidential race.
Some analysts see the popularity of the Good Party as the reason Erdoğan called the early elections, as way of blocking its challenge to his Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has come out top in every election since it came to power in 2002, but now sees its support languishing around the 40 percent mark.
“This is not a claim, it is a fact,” said Özdağ. Having seen the level of support for the Good Party at its April 1 congress, “the government was overcome with panic. We knew they were scared, but we didn’t know they were this scared. This panic was the reason they took this step,” he said.
The other reason Erdoğan had called an early election was the economy, Özdağ said.
Economists have warned the Turkish economy risks overheating as a result of government incentives to spur growth that have also stoked inflation and weakened the Turkish lira (TL). But the hard landing, economist say, could come later in the year, after the polls.
“Turkey is experiencing a collapse. The crisis in the real economy has turned into a financial crisis. Turkey’s largest companies are moving abroad. President Erdoğan admitted this,” Özdağ said.
“The AKP is not in a position to prevent this economic collapse. But they want to use the last resources they have to create a positive atmosphere.”
The IMF warned Turkey this week against providing incentives for investment as the government’s current policies have left the country vulnerable on global markets. Last week, the lira reached historic lows of 4.17 against the dollar.
Özdağ said the government planned to “declare economic martial law” after the economic collapse “so they can seize foreign exchange accounts in banks and convert them to TL and take measures against a crisis or collapse. But this is over now. They cannot do it … The Good Party will emerge as victor in this election.”
