CHP (Republican People’s Party) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu visited the HDP (Peoples’ Democratic Party) in Ankara as the presidential candidate of the Nation Alliance.

Kılıçdaroğlu’s visit took place at the parliamentary group of the HDP. He was accompanied by CHP Group Deputy Chair Özgür Özel, CHP Secretary General Selin Sayek Böke and CHP Vice Chairman Oğuz Kaan Salıcı.

The CHP delegation was received by HDP co-chairs Pervin Buldan and Mithat Sancar, Party Spokeswoman Ebru Günay and HDP Group Deputy Chair Saruhan Oluç.

The Nation Alliance (Millet İttifakı), an electoral alliance of six parties including the CHP (Republican People’s Party) and the IYI Party, nominated Kılıçdaroğlu as its joint candidate two weeks ago after a previous rift.

Before the earthquake disaster on 6 February, the HDP had announced that it would enter the presidential elections with its own candidate. Since then, however, party work has focused on dealing with the aftermath of the earthquake.

On March 15, the HDP's judiciary committee again requested a postponement of the ban proceedings at the Turkish Constitutional Court, which have been ongoing since 2021. The court has set the date for the oral defence of the party's co-chair for 11 April. In its request to postpone the trial until after the 14 May elections, the HDP stated that the party's leaders would be in the middle of an election campaign at the time of the scheduled date.

On the other hand, the Labor and Freedom Alliance published its final declaration after a meeting last Thursday. The Alliance decided to enter the election with the same name. "We will share our common stance on the presidential election as soon as possible," the Alliance said.

The components of the Labor and Freedom Alliance are the Labor Movement Party (EHP), the Labor Party (EMEP), the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), the Socialist Assemblies Federation (SMF), the Workers' Party of Turkey (TIP) and the Social Freedom Party (TOP). 

“We had a wide-ranging discussion about the presidential election. After the earthquake, we decided to re-evaluate the presidential candidate selection process. We have decided to share our common stance, which emerged as a result of the discussion we had on Thursday, with the public at a press conference to be held in a very near future,” read the declaration by the Alliance.