Election Diary - May 20, 2018

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Turkey's 13th President will be determined with the snap election to be held on June 24, 2018. If absolute majority is not constituted, then the second tour will be held on July 8, 2018.

The election developments that took place on May 20, Sunday are:

İnce spoke in Osmaniye

The Presidential candidate of the main opposition party Republican People's Party (CHP) Muharrem İnce spoke in the province of Osmaniye as part of his election campaign.

Stating that they will establish an independent judiciary and a transparent, controllable system, İnce said, "We will appoint competent people to the economic boards, regardless of whether they share the same worldviews with us or not."

Here are some of the highlights from the speech of İnce:

"Turkey exports 155 billion dollar worth of goods and imports 250 billion dollar in return, which accounts for a current deficit of 55 billion dollar. We will break that cycle.

"Our goal is to make Turkey enter the European Union (EU).

"We are not interested in war but reconciliation. This country is being wasted."

The application of release submitted for Demirtaş will be concluded on May 21

Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Co-Chair Sezai Temelli stated that they were expecting that the application of release submitted for the imprisoned Presidential candidate of the HDP Selahattin Demirtaş last week will be concluded on May 21.

Selahattin Demirtaş, who is also the former Co-Chair of the HDP, was arrested on November 4, 2016 and has been kept in Edirne Type F Prison since then. On May 15, 2018, the attorneys of Demirtaş submitted a request for his release from prison.

His own interview was found "undesirable" for Demirtaş

The issue of BirGün daily newspaper, which published an interview with Selahattin Demirtaş, was delivered to Demirtaş with delay. The reason for delay was stated as "endangering public security" by the prison administration. (BK/SD)