Presidential and parliamentary elections in Turkey will be held on May 14 after the holy month of Ramadan, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday, referring to the (conservative) Democratic Party’s electoral victory in 1950.
Without clearly announcing election day, the head of state hinted that it would take place “73 years” after the (conservative) Democratic Party won in 1950.
“Our nation will address its response to the Table of Six on the same day it did 73 years ago,” he said before a meeting of elected officials from his party, the AKP.
Ramadan and the fasting it imposes on believers will take place from March 23rd to April 21st this year.
The AKP, the Justice and Development Party, has been in power since 2002.
Mr Erdogan, a candidate for his own successor, became prime minister in 2003 before amending the constitution in 2014 to become “president”, directly elected by universal suffrage.
The opposition has announced that it will return to a parliamentary regime in the event of victory.
The Democratic Party, founded in 1946 by Adnan Menderes and his supporters, dissidents from the party of Mustafa Kemal “Atatürk,” the father of modern Turkey, had postponed elections on May 14, 1950, before being overthrown by a military state ten years later, then dissolved.
Erdogan has often compared himself to Adnan Menderes, sending a signal to the conservative fringe of the electorate.
The Table of Six is an electoral coalition of six opposition parties, including the main one, the CHP (Mustafa Kemal’s heir).
Only the HDP (left-democratic, pro-Kurdish), the third parliamentary force, did not join this alliance.