Turkey's opposition alliance splits over election candidate

Turkey's right-wing IYI Party said on Friday the main opposition alliance no longer reflected the national will, signalling her party's withdrawal from it ahead of May elections, a move that potentially weakens the challenge to President Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan indicated on Wednesday that presidential and parliamentary elections would be held on May 14, sticking to a previous plan for the vote, despite criticism of his government's response to last month's devastating earthquakes.

Turkey's right-wing IYI Party said on Friday the main opposition alliance no longer reflected the national will, signalling her party's withdrawal from it ahead of May elections, a move that potentially weakens the challenge to President Tayyip Erdogan.

Erdogan indicated on Wednesday that presidential and parliamentary elections would be held on May 14, sticking to a previous plan for the vote, despite criticism of his government's response to last month's devastating earthquakes. Speaking at party headquarters in Ankara, IYI Party leader Meral Aksener said the other five parties in the alliance had put forward Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the main Republican People's Party (CHP), as their presidential candidate.

But she said her party was unable to accept him and instead proposed as candidates the Istanbul and Ankara mayors, both from the CHP, saying opinion polls showed they would win by a large margin against Erdogan. "As of yesterday, the 'Table of Six' (opposition parties) has lost the ability to reflect the will of the people in its decisions," she said, signaling her party's exit from the alliance.

"It is no longer a platform through which potential candidates can be discussed but a table that rubber-stamps a single candidate," she said. Aksener called on Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu and Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavas to step up as candidates.

"Our nation is at a breaking point, calling you for duty," she said. The leaders of the six opposition parties met on Thursday with the expectation that they would agree on a joint candidate, who was widely expected to be Kilicdaroglu, but reports of discord within the parties intensified after the meeting.

The opposition has failed in previous national votes to pose a serious challenge to Erdogan, who has been in power for two decades. But he has seen his popularity dip amid a cost-of-living crisis even before last month's earthquakes that killed at least 45,000 people in Turkey. (Additional reporting by Orhan Coskun and Ali Kucukgocmen; Writing by Daren Butler and Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Edmund Blair, Christina Fincher and Gareth Jones)