ANKARA: Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish party on Wednesday said its charismatic former leader Selahattin Demirtas would challenge President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in polls next month even though he is currently jailed.

The announcement added new intrigue to the campaign for the June 24 polls as other opposition parties indicated they were set to join forces in an unprecedented alliance against Erdogan.

Erdogan last month called the simultaneous parliamentary and presidential snap polls one and a half years ahead of schedule, seeking a thumping parliamentary majority and a new mandate after 15 years in power.

The Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) said it had agreed on Demirtas as its candidate and his campaign would be launched in simultaneous rallies in Istanbul and the majority Kurdish city of Diyarbakir on Friday. Demirtas, 45, was a candidate against Erdogan in August 2014 presidential elections and led HDP into parliament for the first time in June 2015 polls.

Dubbed the “Kurdish Obama” by admirers after the rhetorically-gifted former US president, Demirtas stood out in Turkish politics with impassioned speeches and a radiant charisma. But he was arrested in November 2016 in a crackdown that followed the July failed coup and put on trial in several cases, notably on charges of links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).Meanwhile four other opposition parties were set on Thursday to announce an alliance that would see them field joint parliamentary lists but separate presidential candidates.

The alliance includes the secular Republican People’s Party (CHP) which would join forces with the new Iyi (Good) Party as well as the conservative Saadet (Felicity) Party and the centre-right Democrat Party.

Talks between the parties were ongoing ahead of an expected signing of the alliance protocol on Thursday, a CHP source, who did not wish to be named, told AFP.

CHP deputy leader Seyit Torun told state news agency Anadolu that he wanted the new grouping to be called the “democracy alliance” and that the parties had “united around principles”. The government lambasted the move as merely a ploy to oppose Erdogan at any cost, with Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag scoffing it was a “forced alliance like a forced marriage”.

The alliance follows Erdo­gan’s own partnership with the right-wing Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) which is is supporting Erdo­gan’s bid for the presidency.

The June 24 polls will be a landmark in modern Turkish history. After the elections, a new presidential system approved in an April 2017 referendum which critics claim gives the head of state authoritarian powers will come into force.

Published in Dawn, May 3rd, 2018