Erdogan’s election headache grows as allies fail to reach agreement on candidates

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s fledgling electoral alli-ance is fraying over a dispute about parliamentary candidates that could threaten his two decades of control with elections just six weeks away.

Two parties that are backing the president’s bid for re-election on May 14 said on Tuesday they’ll field separate parliamentary can-didates in the vote. In contrast, an increasingly united opposition bloc has largely agreed on a joint list of potential MPs.

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Collaborative lists are an advantage under Turkey’s D’Hondt system of proportional representation, which favors alliances and larger parties over smaller ones.

“It would not be correct, logical, or reasonable for the MHP to be involved in the preparation of a joint list and use that while two other parties in the alliance are planning to participate in the elections with their own candidates,” Erdogan’s biggest traditional ally, Devlet Bahceli said, using the Turkish initials of his Nationalist Movement Party.

Bahceli’s comments followed a similar move by the Islamist Yeniden Refah party, one of the two small parties that recently joined Erdogan’s alliance. After meeting Erdogan on Tuesday, its leader Fatih Erbakan said he’d use his own party’s list and logo in the parliamentary race. Another member of the bloc, the Great Unity Party or BBP, is also considering separate candidates.

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