A presidential candidate versus Erdogan is not everything. Turkish opposition faces obstacle Joint Lists

Istanbul– "If the nation has three races, two of them are dominant in the Nation Alliance," is how Future Party leader and former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu summed up the situation within Turkey's opposition alliance, the Nation Alliance, where the nationalist Good Party and the secular-leftist Republican People's Party prevail, at the expense of conservativeism.

Davutoglu called for a balance between these components amid discussions among the parties of the Six-Party Table Alliance on the electoral lists of candidates for the parliamentary elections scheduled for May 14.

According to observers, some differences plagued the discussions that took place at the opposition table on the lists of candidates for parliament, before 5 parties in the alliance reached an agreement to present candidates on the lists of the Republican People's Party (the largest opposition party), and the four small parties are the future, democracy and progress, democracy, and happiness, while the sixth party on the table - the Good Party - will advance with separate lists in the parliamentary elections.

Small parties in the opposition alliance are trying to overcome the barrier that prevents any party from entering parliament unless it wins 7% of the seats in parliament alone.

In recent weeks, there have been numerous rumors of promises made by CHP leader and presidential candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu to his coalition partners to give them quotas from his lists to secure up to 20 or 30 seats for some parties, but they have remained unconfirmed by the parties concerned.

Ahmet Davutoglu (center) criticized the dominance of nationalists and secularists over the opposition and called for balance with the conservative movement (Reuters)

The truth about opposition disagreements

The famous writer and journalist close to the government, Abdul Qadir Salfi, spoke a few days ago about a dispute between the Democracy and Progress Party (DIFFA), led by Ali Babacan, former minister in the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the Republican People's Party, against the background of the latter's retraction of his pledge to grant "Diva" 20 deputies, where he offered only 3 deputies, which he will do with the rest of the small parties, according to my predecessor, who quoted Babacan's party as not accepting this.

Although the five parties announced on Thursday that they had reached an agreement on a joint list of candidates for the parliamentary elections, they did not provide details on the number of candidates from each party.

Meanwhile, a source in the Republican People's Party revealed to Al Jazeera Net that the five parties will present their independent candidates in a number of states.

Rashtu Hacioglu, a member of the Republican People's Party (CHP) and an adviser to Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, said each of the parties in the Nation Alliance would run with its own candidates and lists in 41 provinces, meaning the joint list would not include all states.

Opposition presidential candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu (middle) seeks to prevent small parties from withdrawing from opposition alliance (Reuters)

The problem of joint lists

On the nature of the disagreement expressed by Future Party leader Davutoğlu when he spoke of the dominance of two currents in the six-party table, Hacioglu suggested that the Future Party leader may want to distribute the Joint List in this way, that is, equally among the three currents. But he said it was difficult for the CHP to accept.

"The backbone of the Joint List will be the CHP, and the party's desire to be the first party is natural. Because he doesn't have the problem of the constitutional barrier, and he doesn't need other parties for it."

For his part, Future Party leader Alp Tekin Houjaoglu downplayed the size of the dispute between the parties of the six-party table over the lists of candidates, and said that the pro-government media since the formation of the six-party table spread rumors about it, and this is part of the psychological warfare in the political work of the ruling party.

Speaking to Al Jazeera Net, Hocaoglu denied the existence of any disagreement, but according to the new and complex electoral system, which is applied for the first time in Turkey, all parties in alliances - whether related to the government or the opposition - are still in the process of calculations that guarantee a larger number of seats for each party. Therefore, it is normal for the debate to take place within alliances, but there is no crisis at the six-party table in this regard.

Davutoglu's statement on the three currents does not reflect a disagreement, as much as it is a message on behalf of the three conservative parties within the Nation Pact to the two main parties to balance the lists of candidates, he said.

According to Ismail Simaz, a Turkish journalist close to the opposition, the CHP has allocated a quota of 30 deputies to other small parties within the six-table alliance, but there have been no official statements from the parties concerned confirming or denying this.

Overcoming the hardest knot

Although uncertainty remains over the nature of the agreement between opposition parties on the subject of joint lists, opposition circles do not seem concerned that differences could worsen later and affect the outcome of the elections.

Turkish writer and journalist Mehmet Tahiroglu ruled out that opposition discussions could lead to withdrawals from the six-party table or its disintegration, especially after overcoming the most difficult knot that was the selection of a joint presidential candidate.

He added to Al Jazeera Net that it is normal to be sharp discussions and will feel small parties a kind of anxiety and doubts if you do not get what you want from parliamentary seats.

He predicted that the CHP, after succeeding in convincing several parties to get their support, will not now get involved in angering some of them to the point of pushing them to withdraw, but will follow a kind of diplomacy and dialogue to reach satisfaction and compromise as much as possible.

Resto Hacioglu, an adviser to Ekrem Imamoglu, said there would be no great tension or discord within the opposition, saying: "The current picture will not produce major crises, as long as the main motive for the unity of the opposition is to get rid of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan."