Erkan Baş: 'We will cause no loss to the opposition'

Photo: From a press conference of the Labor and Freedom Alliance

Click to read the article in Turkish

The deadline is approaching for the political parties to participate in the May 14 elections to determine their lists of candidates for MP and their method of participation in the elections. Meanwhile, the decision announced by the Worker's Party of Turkey (TİP) related to their method of participation in parliamentary elections continues to be a topic of heated debate.

Yesterday (April 3), Erkan Baş, the president of TİP, responded to those criticizing his party for its decision to compete within the Labor and Freedom Alliance (LFA) but under its separate lists. Baş shared a two-page letter signed by himself from his Twitter account in the evening. Here he said that their party "will put up candidates for MP only in the provinces where they see the necessary potential to have an MP elected, and with an attitude so as not to cause any loss to either their alliance or any section of the opposition."

The deadline for the parties to submit their lists of candidates to the Supreme Election Council (YSK) is 05:00 pm. on April 7.

Warnings and criticisms

There have been warnings and criticism towards the bet of TİP to compete not on the joint list of the LFA, but under its own lists. The other components of the alliance, including the People's Democratic Party (HDP) with the greatest electoral support, will be competing in the parliamentary elections under a joint list. HDP, facing the risk of closure in the HDP closure case at the Constitutional Court, and the other political groups in the alliance, will be competing in the May 14 elections under the Green Left Party.

Many have criticized the strategy of the party, saying it will not help TİP to win, and it will cause a loss to the Green and Left Party list and help the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to win more seats in the parliament.

Baş: "We work with all our might to protect our alliance"

Erkan Baş wrote in his tweet, "We continue to ignore the provocative and ill-intentioned comments that we see in various mediums, to defend the fraternity of the Kurdish and Turkish peoples against the policies of those who are trying to create hostility, and to protect and to strengthen our solidarity."

Thanking "especially Gülten Kışanak and Selahattin Demirtaş [...] for their valuable comments," Baş said, "this is not a debate with our comrades who have unlawfully been imprisoned."

The party leader explained the method of participation of the party and the talks they had with the GLP:

1. As we have done in the past, we will today and also in the future, keep away from any attitudes or initiatives that make it more difficult for our country to get rid of the existing darkness, or that put at risk the progress that our alliance has made.

2. The Worker's Party of Turkey (TİP) is an independent political party with its own program, organization, and political targets; takes its decisions on its own boards and negotiates these openly with its allies.

3. The following should be known about the talks our boards have made until now:

a. Our party has not made any requests for a number, place, or quota of MPs from the Green Left Party (GLP).

b. Our party has not made any requests to the GLP for them not to put up candidates in any provinces.

c. Our party has communicated to its allies in that it will not put up candidates in a number of provinces including Adıyaman, Ağrı, Ardahan, Batman, Bingöl, Bitlis, Dersim, Diyarbakır, Gaziantep, Hakkari, Iğdır, Kars, Mardin, Muş, Siirt, Şanlıurfa, Şırnak and Van.

d. We have communicated our intention not to put up candidates in one electoral region of Aydın, Bursa, and İzmir, and in Kocaeli and Manisa where it is risky for both parties to be elected MP in case we run with two lists, and to call our supporters to vote for GLP.

e. Our party will take into account not to cause any harm not only to the GLP, but also to the other opposition parties in determining the 41 provinces where it has to compete in the parliamentary elections according to the law.

4. We are working on the formulations that maximize the gains of both our country and the Labor and Freedom Alliance and that the allies will not cause harm to one another for regions other than these provinces. Everyone can rest assured that our party will participate in the elections only in the provinces where it sees a potential for having MPs elected, with an approach not to cause any harm to our alliance or even any portion of the opposition.

"We will get rid of the Palace Regime together at the end of this process. We firmly believe that. We have resisted together, and we will win together," wrote Erkan Baş at the end of his letter.

HDP Vice-President Tayip Temel retweeted Baş, and also wrote, "We have resisted together, we will win together."  

"How will votes cast for alliances be counted?

With the last amendment made to the election law in Turkey, the 10 percent election threshold has been lowered to 7 percent. The method of calculation for the votes to be cast for the political parties that will enter the elections within an alliance also changed.

According to the new law, the number of MPs that each political party making up an alliance will have elected will be calculated according to the number of votes cast for the list of that political party, according to the D'hont system.

The political parties that enter the parliamentary elections within an alliance do not have to receive more than 7 percent of the votes on the national scale. If the alliance has more than 7 percent of the votes, all political parties in the alliance are regarded as having passed the election threshold.

However, despite the smaller political parties wanting their names and emblems to be seen separately under the name of the alliance, the new regulation makes it a disadvantage when there are separate lists of political parties within an alliance competing, as compared to a single/joint list of candidates of MP.

The issue is one of heated debate and concern not only in the Labor and Freedom Alliance but also in the Nation Alliance of six opposition parties and the People's Alliance supporting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. (AEK/PE)