Turkey's election body confirms four presidential candidates

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The Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) has confirmed the presidential candidacy of four nominees, head of the council announced late yesterday (March 27).

The names had been sent to the Official Gazette for a public announcement, Ahmet Yener said at a press conference.

The candidates are President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, Homeland (Memleket) Party Chair Muharrem İnce and former MP Sinan Oğan.

Erdoğan and Kılıçdaroğlu, the two main contenders, were nominated by their parties' alliances, namely the People's Alliance and the Nation's Alliance, while the other two qualified as candidates after fulfilling the requirement to collect 100,000 signatures. Parties with a parliamentary group can nominate candidates without the signature requirement.

İnce, a former CHP deputy and the Nation's Alliance candidate in the 2018 election, collected 114,661 signatures and Oğan, the candidate of the Ancestral Alliance, collected 111,508 signatures, said Yener.

The Ancestral Alliance is led by the Victory (Zafer) Party, which is known for its anti-refugee rhetoric.

Appeal against Erdoğan's candidacy

The appeal process began today, with the names published in the Official Gazette, and will end on March 31, when the YSK publishes the final list of candidates.

The Good (İYİ) Party, the second-largest party in the Nation's Alliance, will file an appeal against Erdoğan's candidacy, a spokesperson for the party announced yesterday.

Whether Erdoğan can run for president once more has been widely disputed, with the opposition claiming that he can't, citing article 101 of the Constitution, which says "a person can be elected president twice at most." Erdoğan was elected the president in the 2014 and 2018 elections.

However, the ruling camp argues that Erdoğan's first term was before the 2017 constitutional amendment for a switch to a presidential system, which also includes the aforementioned article, hence he can be elected one more time. (AEK/ME/VK)