Fascist İyi Party leader Akşener vows to run in snap presidential elections

Meral Akşener has vowed to run in Turkey’s early presidential election. She stressed that the İyi Party has convened its first congress on Dec. 10, after which it formed provincial and district party organizations
Wednesday, 18 April 2018 18:52

Meral Akşener, the head of the ultra-nationalist İyi (Good) Party, said it was the "most prepared party" and announced she would stand for the presidency.

"Since then our party has been ready to go in elections. The İyi Party will run in the election and will win," Akşener said.

She emphasized that the İyi Party has convened its congress on time as the election law requires holding a congress for a new party six months in advance in order to be able to run in the next election. However, doubts linger because the party finalized its district congress on Feb. 26 and it is still not clear whether the High Election Board will take this date into account to calculate the necessary six-month period.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan said on Wednesday elections will be held on June 24, 2018, more than a year earlier than planned. Both presidential and parliamentary elections will be held on the same day, on June 24.

Erdoğan made the announcement in an address at his presidential palace after meeting fascist Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli who the day earlier had "suggested" early elections. 

Akşener, an old figure involved in "unsolved" murders in the past, an open fascist, anti-labour, friend of capitalists and a NATO supporter, is trying to be presented as a hope for the sake of the new balance in elections.

The İyi Party was founded on Oct. 25, 2017, under the leadership of Akşener, a former senior fascist MHP official who was expelled from the party amid disagreements with Bahçeli.

Bahçeli expected to form an alliance with Erdoğan's AKP party in the polls.

MHP, under the leadership of Devlet Bahçeli, has dissolved within AKP and that some right-wing people staying out of AKP have left without a political address have brought İyi Party forward as a central-right party project. This project has succeeded in expanding more than expected by being supported by Doğan Media and parliamentary main opposition CHP party's media instruments, although the project then had not yet turned into a political party.