İYİ (Good) Party leader Meral Aksener has admitted defeat in the recent election amid ongoing debates about the opposition’s vote rates and potential failures.
“We lost the election. Mr. [President Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan and his friends won. We’ve lost it… We can’t get results by questioning the electorate, our beloved nation, with a disrespectful language,” Aksener stated, addressing attendees at a festival in the southern province of Isparta on July 29.
“In the face of the people’s choice, I do not look guilty, but I salute them. The people told us to stay in the opposition in this election, as in 2018. What is the opposition? It is the spokesperson of the people. We will control the government on your behalf and express its deficiencies,” she added.
While acknowledging defeat, Akşener assured her party’s commitment to continuing as a strong opposition force. “What we will do now, as the İYİ Party, is to walk the path with the morality and decency of being useful, which will lead to the local elections that I started from here and the general elections after the local elections,” she stated.
Akşener’s remarks came following a speech by the Nation Alliance’s presidential candidate, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who also spoke about the election results, using a strange phrase “We didn’t lose, they won”.
CHP leader Kilicdaroglu has committed several mistakes after the election, losing the trust of his party and other opposition parties constituting the Nation Alliance. Kilicdaroglu refused to resign, insinuating that alternatives were all tainted by corruption.
His secret protocol with tiny anti-immigrant party Victory Party, which entitled the chair of the latter appointing three ministers to the cabinet triggered outcry from all opposition parties.
IYIP deputies and rank and file clearly told Aksener that their voters don’t wish to cooperate with CHP in 2024 March local elections.
IYIP will field its candidates, to test the party’s strength by going solo first time since it was launched. It stands little chance of winning any big city posts and may trip CHP from retaining several large cities like Istanbul, Ankara and Adana-Mersin.
Hurriyet Daily News
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