22 June 2018•Update: 22 June 2018
By Cihan Okur and Ekber Turkoglu
TOKAT, Turkey
Turkey’s main opposition party’s leader on Friday called on voters to follow their conscience while going to cast their votes.
Republican People’s Party (CHP) chairman Kemal Kilicdaroglu met with representatives of NGOs and mukhtars (village heads) in the Black Sea province of Tokat, where he said: “Follow your conscience and go to the ballot boxes […] This is not an ordinary election.”
Stating that there were two options, he added: “We will either vote in favor of democracy or in favor of one-man regime.”
Kilicdaroglu also stressed that Turkey needed to provide added value to the economy.
“If we can’t produce high added-value goods, Turkey would not take place in the world arena,” said Kilicdaroglu.
Speaking about the opposition's Nation Alliance formed by the CHP, the Good (IYI) Party, and the Felicity (Saadet) Party, he asked: “They said, ‘they can never come together’. Why can’t we? We are agreed on the democracy, the separation of powers and the freedom of the media.”
For the first time in Turkish history, political parties will go to elections by forming alliances.
Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) have also forged an alliance named People’s Alliance.
Turkish voters will go to polls for parliamentary and presidential elections on Sunday, with 56,3 million eligible voters and 180,065 ballot boxes across the country.
Voting is scheduled to start at 8.00 a.m. local time (0500GMT) and continue through 5.00 p.m. local time (1400GMT).
