The co-chair of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), Pervin Buldan, announced that her party will run its own candidate in the upcoming presidential elections in Turkey. The Kurdish politician made the announcement on Saturday at the congress of the provincial association of the HDP in Kars. The candidacy will be announced shortly.

Parliamentary and presidential elections are to be held in Turkey on 18 June. For some time now, a closure case has been underway against the HDP, which, at the request of the Erdogan government, is to be concluded before the elections. On Thursday, the Turkish Constitutional Court excluded the HDP from state party funding. As a result, the party loses access to 27 million euros, a third of which was to be paid out before 10 January. A decision on whether the party will be permanently deprived of public funds is to be made in a month's time.

Pervin Buldan said the following in Kars regarding the cancellation of party funding: "We know that this is not a legal decision and that it was made on orders from the palace. The Constitutional Court has made itself an instrument of the palace by signing the ruling. Public funds can be blocked, but the will of the people cannot be blocked by any power."

According to the HDP co-chair, this is an election campaign strategy of the AKP and MHP to force the HDP out of parliament and politics: "As the HDP, we will soon make public the name of our presidential candidacy. The HDP will run its own candidate in the elections. We have no common ground with the People's Alliance [Cumhur İttifakı, AKP and MHP] and the National Alliance [Millet İttifakı, CHP, IYI Party and others]. However, we have principles that we can talk about and negotiate when the time comes. We are ready for dialogue, but so far we have decided to run for office ourselves. We have prepared for this together with all democratic forces in Turkey, with the Alliance for Labour and Freedom, with the consent of women and youth, and taking into account the proposals of all social groups. No one should assume that the HDP will bind itself to one party or another. The HDP stands for a will in Turkey, it is a big force. And it is a party that wants to emerge from the elections with many votes. The HDP is not a Kurdish party, it is the party of all oppressed, disregarded and marginalised peoples and social groups. It is the umbrella under which all identities are represented in parliament."

The HDP has tipped the scales several times in past elections in Turkey. In the last parliamentary election in 2018, it received almost six million votes. This currently makes the HDP the second strongest opposition faction in the Turkish National Assembly. But the local elections in March 2019 in particular contributed to its reputation as a kingmaker. At that time, the party leadership refrained from running its own candidates in some cities and instead called on its voters to give their votes to CHP candidates. Without the backing of the HDP, the election victory of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu would not have been possible.