HDP (Peoples' Democratic Party) Spokesperson Saruhan Oluç held a press conference on local elections at the party's headquarters.

Commenting on the European Court of Human Rights ruling indicating that jailed former HDP co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş should be released, Oluç said: “A legal decision should be taken as to the situation of Demirtaş.”

Isolation is against humanity

Recalling that HDP Hakkari deputy Leyla Güven is on the 23rd day of her hunger strike against the isolation of Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Öcalan, Oluç said: “Our deputy has gone on hunger strike demanding the removal of isolation which for 3 and a half years has been increased to inhuman levels. In the coming days, solidarity hunger strikes lasting 3 days will be undertaken in 6 provinces, 3 in Kurdish provinces and 3 in western provinces”.

Oluç said that “the Parliament President was made aware of the situation of Leyla Güven and took no steps. “The necessary steps should be taken without delay.”

Judiciary is part of the AKP-MHP coalition

Referring to the political genocide operations targeting the HDP, Oluç said: “The operations launched by the judiciary are continuing as we approach the local elections”, as revealed by the latest detentions.

"Some members of the judiciary - said Oluç - appear to have actually joined the AKP-MHP coalition”.

Women and candidates

The deadline for applications for candidates is 5 December, said Oluç who added: “Local dynamics will determine the candidates."

Oluç also reminded that “the co-chairmanship and representation of women will be at least 50 percent. Now we are heading towards the end of the second phase, - he added - and we will start our election campaign in the third phase after the candidates have been announced”.

There is only one exception to the selection of candidates, said Oluç: “As you know, alliances with Kurdish political parties and NGOs are continuing in Kurdish provinces. Where there are candidates for the Alliance and where risk analysis are carried out, the candidate selection will be made in an original manner, taking into consideration the candidates for the alliance. The only exception is this”.

We will win a minimum of 30 municipalities

Oluç continued: “Our first objective is to win back all the municipalities assigned to the trustees in the future. We are confident we will win the elections also in Kurdish provinces where we have not won in 2014. We have a goal to win over 102 councils in at least 30 places. We will take a very important step towards local democracy and local governance”.

Oluç also said: “We continue to work in the western provinces. We are working hard to select the best candidates for those places taking into account the local dynamics. In the West, we are conducting a work aimed at narrowing the sovereignty area of ​​the AKP-MHP coalition.”

Questions answered

Oluç answered questions from members of the press.

As to rumours that the HDP will not present its own candidates in Istanbul and Ankara, Oluç said: “This is not a topic we discuss now. We are collecting candidate applications at this point. We will move to the next stage of nominating candidates after the application phase is completed. So we have made no decision as to who are going to be the candidates. This is not something that we can secretly do without people”.

Finally, Oluç said that rumours about “a wise people meeting in Oslo” are just that, rumours and added that the HDP is not involved in this and won’t enter into speculation about this. “We are working on local elections”, he said and added: “If the Government wants to take concrete steps, here is the European Court of Human Rights ruling on the need to release former co-chair Demirtaş. There is a concrete step the government could take if it is serious about wanting to talk about democracy and peace”.