Kılıçdaroğlu to meet with presidential outsider İnce

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The presidential candidate of the Nation Alliance and chair of the Republican People's Party (CHP), Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, and Chairperson of the Homeland (Memleket) Party, Muharrem İnce will likely meet tomorrow.

Kılıçdaroğlu, who officially launched his presidential campaign today, told Medyascope journalist Ruşen Çakır his intentions to meet with the Homeland party leader and presidential candidate İnce.

"The request for a meeting came from us. We will most likely meet tomorrow,"  Kılıçdaroğlu said. He responded similarly to questions on the subject by journalist İsmail Saymaz.

Kılıçdaroğlu’na “Muharrem İnce ile görüşecek misiniz?” diye sordum. Yarın büyük ihtimalle Memleket Partisi’ni ziyaret edeceğini ve İnce ile görüşeceklerini söyledi.

— İsmail Saymaz (@ismailsaymaz) March 28, 2023

In an interview held with the daily Hürriyet today, the Homeland party leader explained that he is open to negotiating with Kılıçdaroğlu, in an interview held with the daily Hürriyet today.

İnce previously ran as CHP's presidential candidate in Turkey's 2018 presidential elections. After several disputes, he left the CHP, Turkey's oldest political party, and founded the Memleket (Homeland) Party.

While most see the race for the presidency to be between incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and main opposition leader Kılıçdaroğlu, İnce is considered a presidential outsider that might take away crucial votes from the Nation Alliance's contender.

In statements made last week during a live broadcast, the 58-year-old former physics teacher boasted that he could garner the votes of Erdoğan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), something "Mister Kemal is unable to do," and that his party's support is four times higher than that of four smaller parties in the Nation Alliance.

İnce collected the necessary 100,000 signatures in order to be included in the provisional list of presidential candidates announced yesterday (March 27) by the Supreme Election Council (YSK). Something only he and Sinan Oğan of the far-right Ancestral Alliance were able to do. Both Kılıçdaroğlu and President Erdoğan did not require to collect any signatures as they have been put forward by their parliamentary parties. (ME/WM)