The Most Important Week On The Road To Elections

CUMHURIYET- Columnist Mustafa Balbay writes on political parties’ deputy candidate lists to be delivered to the Supreme Election Board (YSK) this week. A summary of his column is as follows:
This week we will witness the most important days on the road to November’s elections. All of the political parties have to hand in their deputy candidate lists to the YSK by this Wednesday, Sept. 11. After that we will have three main subjects on our agenda: inter-party tempests and disputes, attempts to cancel the elections by disappointed deputies who proved unable to claim their desired places on candidate lists, and the YSK’s response to certain applications. Today, let’s have a look at this first subject. Political parties always find it difficult to draw up their candidate lists. Parties on the rise suffer from having to weed through an overabundance of prospective candidates while also protecting the party’s best interests, while those on the wane have difficulty finding qualified figures. The Justice and Development Party (AKP), besides its ‘pro-Islamic’ stance, has become the major center of gravity on the center-right. Those who burned their bridges with the Motherland Party (ANAP) have flocked to the AKP, and most of them have a good chance of being elected. Whereas the Nationalist Action Party’s (MHP) situation is proving to be quite unusual. The leading figures coming after the MHP’s chairman, Devlet Bahceli, are not at the top spots of the lists in their election districts. Concerning ANAP, one can say that it will first assess the current situation after its recent meltdown, and then try to prepare a list from the leftovers. In short, the picture isn’t terribly promising for ANAP. Yet ANAP leader Mesut Yilmaz may still have a few tricks up his sleeve. A similar case also holds true for the Democratic Left Party (DSP). Prime Minister and DSP Chairman Bulent Ecevit is continuing to make strategic moves. We can expect surprising developments in the DSP over the days to come. New Turkey Party (YTP) leader Ismail Cem thinks that his party has enough time before Nov. 3. The True Path Party (DYP) is well aware that it is losing sway on the center-right, and it has already announced that it would enter elections in alliance with the party of Tugrul Turkes, the son of former MHP leader Alparslan Turkes, namely the Enlightened Turkey Party (ATP). The Republican People’s Party (CHP) is the most attractive party on the center-left. However, it has its own concerns about candidate lists. The week we are in now is very likely to give birth to very strange developments.

SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION