Hemin Assaf
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey - The pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) in Turkey officially submitted its list of candidates for a general election on November 1, following inconclusive polls in June.
All parties are required to submit their lists by today, for the snap election that is seen as a showdown between the HDP and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
The run-up to the polls comes amid a war between Ankara and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), re-ignited in late July after the AKP suffered a severe setback by the HDP in the June election.
Turkish forces have been pounding the PKK in near-daily raids since resuming a war that shattered a two-year ceasefire and peace talks that were meant to end a three-decade conflict.
Some opinion polls show a notable rise in the HDP’s popularity, especially among voters in Turkey’s Kurdish southeast, where daily clashes have taken place in and around the cities.
The HDP said it hopes for 110 seats in parliament, or 17 percent of the 550 total.
The party, which is widely supported by Kurdish and various leftist groups in Turkey, received 13 percent of the votes in June, becoming the first pro-Kurdish party to win the right to a seat in parliament.
New elections were announced after the AKP was unable to form a cabinet in 45 days. The AKP’s received 41 percent of the votes, an eight percent drop since the 2011 polls in which it own 327 seats
The HDP has accused the government of escalating violence in the southeast to win over undecided voters among Turkish nationalists who see the pro-Kurdish party as an anti-establishment organization.
The HDP, widely believed to share the same popular base as the outlawed PKK, has asked both the government and PKK to lay down arms and resume talks.
Fighting between Turkish and PKK forces resumed following a July 20 bombing in the Turkish-Syrian border town of Suruc in which 32 people were killed and 104 wounded. The PKK later took responsibility for killing two policemen, and Turkey responded with near-daily air raids or artillery attacks.
Comments
Rudaw moderates all comments submitted on our website. We welcome comments which are relevant to the article and encourage further discussion about the issues that matter to you. We also welcome constructive criticism about Rudaw.
To be approved for publication, however, your comments must meet our community guidelines.
We will not tolerate the following: profanity, threats, personal attacks, vulgarity, abuse (such as sexism, racism, homophobia or xenophobia), or commercial or personal promotion.
Comments that do not meet our guidelines will be rejected. Comments are not edited – they are either approved or rejected.
Post a comment