Turkish opposition agrees on candidate for presidential elections

Nearly 2,000 university students, some wearing miners' hard-hats, and carrying coal on a cart, called on the government to resign as they marched to commemorate the beginning of the Turkish War of Independence started on May 19, 1919, in Ankara, Turkey, Monday, May 19, 2014.

Turkey’s two largest opposition parties agreed on Monday to run Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, a diplomat and academic, as their joint candidate for the presidential election in August.

Mr. Ihsanoglu will most likely compete against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, though the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has yet to officially confirm who will be its candidate.

The decision was announced following a meeting of the centre-left Republic People’s Party (CHP) and the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). Mr. Ihsanoglu himself has yet to make a public comment.

Mr. Ihsanoglu previously served as the secretary general of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, a 57-member inter-governmental organization. He held the post for more than nine years and stepped down in January this year.

He has little domestic political experience, though Mr. Ihsanoglu was active in Turkish academia, particularly in the field of the history of science.

The election in August will be the first time Turkey directly elects a president. In the past, parliament has chosen who fills the role.

Indications are that the AKP will seek to give the president a more executive role if Mr. Erdogan wins.

AKP easily won local elections in March, garnering about 43 per cent of the vote and securing its position as the largest party. The CHP got about 26 per cent while the MHP had nearly 18.

Kurdish voters are expected to play a deciding role in the presidential election. Pro-Kurdish parties got more than 6 per cent of the vote in March.