Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has signaled that Turkey’s election will be held on May 14, drawing a crucial vote in the month as the ruling party faces its toughest campaign after two decades in power.
The 68-year-old president said in a speech to members of parliament in the Justice and Development party (AKP) on Wednesday that the presidential and parliamentary polls would be held on the same date as Turkey’s first free multi-party elections in 1950.
Polls show support for the AKP hovering at a historic low over its handling of Turkey’s $800bn economy. Rampant inflation, double unemployment and a currency crisis have reduced the spending power of Turkish households. In recent weeks, Erdoğan has announced public spending measures as part of efforts to ease the economic pain.
May 14 is the 73rd anniversary of the election in which prime minister Adnan Menderes won against the People’s Democratic Party (CHP), which is again Turkey’s largest opposition party. Menderes was then removed by the military.
“On May 14 1950, the late Menderes said ‘Enough, the nation has said,’ and came out of the ballot box with a great victory,” said Erdoğan. “On the same day 73 years later, our nation will say ‘enough’ to the coup pranksters and the incompetent candidates who faced us. I ask parliament to do what is necessary.
Erdoğan previously said that the election, scheduled for June 18, should go ahead to avoid the summer holiday season. Turkey’s parliament and election council must approve the new election date.
An earlier date could help the AKP implement stimulus measures, including wage increases and early retirement for millions, said Özer Sencar, director of the Metropoll Center for Strategic and Social Research. Economists say inflation, which is running at more than 64 percent, will eat into wage increases during the summer.
Erdoğan is pushing for rapid economic growth by ordering the central bank to cut interest rates despite one of the highest inflation rates in the world, undermining the national currency. But a weak lira has boosted exports and manufacturing, and low borrowing costs have boosted consumption.
“Erdoğan’s speech leaves no room for interpretation, and now we can plan elections on May 14,” Sencar said. “He has been campaigning economically for a long time [policies], while the opposition relies on a sufficient economic situation to ensure victory. He added that a recent Metropoll survey showed the AKP had attracted some disaffected voters in recent months.
Six opposition parties, including the CHP, which have formed an electoral alliance to end what they call Erdogan’s one-man rule have yet to nominate a challenger to Erdoğan.
The main opposition figure Ekrem İmamoğlu, the mayor of Istanbul, polled ahead of Erdoğan. A court last month convicted him of insulting a public official and banned him from politics, which the mayor said was politically motivated. İmamoğlu remains in office pending an appeal and has not said he intends to contest the presidency.
Turkey’s second-largest opposition party also faces a ban at the country’s highest court over its ties to Kurdish militants.
Erdoğan often invokes his personal hero Menderes, the center-right leader who ruled Turkey for a decade until the 1960 coup. He was executed a year later after a military court convicted him of violating the constitution, and the CHP returned to power in a coalition in the next election.