In the lead up to the 2023 Turkish presidential election, discussions took place around the nomination of presidential candidates.
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the incumbent president and leader of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), announced that he would run as the presidential candidate of the electoral alliance, the People's Alliance. Other parties of the People's Alliance, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the Great Unity Party (BBP), supported Erdoğan's candidacy. This was Erdoğan's third presidential campaign, following two prior successful campaigns in 2014 and 2018.
Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leader of the Republican People's Party and the Main Opposition Leader since 2010, was the joint candidate of the Nation Alliance. The Nation Alliance was a newly created electoral alliance of opposition parties consisting of the Table of Six: the Republican People's Party, the Good Party, the Democrat Party, the Felicity Party, DEVA Party and the Future Party. The Alliance held its nomination meeting on 2 March 2023, with an official announcement confirming Kılıçdaroğlu as its joint candidate occurring on 6 March 2023.
Muharrem İnce, who was the presidential candidate of the Republican People's Party in the 2018 election and finished second with 30.6% of the vote, announced that he would be a candidate again as the leader of the Homeland Party. İnce withdrew from the race three days before the election even after gaining ballot access. Sinan Oğan was nominated by the right-wing Ancestral Alliance and also achieved ballot access.
Four candidates, Erdoğan, Kılıçdaroğlu, İnce, and Oğan appeared on the ballot in the first round. After no candidate received a majority of the vote in the first round, the top two candidates, Erdoğan and Kılıçdaroğlu, were the only eligible candidates to appear on the ballot for the second round. Third and fourth place candidates Oğan and İnce endorsed Erdoğan and Kılıçdaroğlu respectively.
| List of presidential candidates in the order they appeared on ballots in the first round [1] [lower-alpha 1] | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |||||||||||
 |  |  |  | |||||||||||
| Recep Tayyip Erdoğan | Muharrem İnce [lower-alpha 2] | Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu | Sinan Oğan | |||||||||||
| People's Alliance | — | Nation Alliance | Ancestral Alliance | |||||||||||
| AKP | MHP | BBP | YRP | MP | CHP | İYİ | DEVA | GP | SP | DP | ZP | AP | ÜP | TÜİP |
| Campaign | Campaign | Campaign | Campaign | |||||||||||
| Possible People's Alliance candidates | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| |  |  |  |
| Recep Tayyip Erdoğan | Devlet Bahçeli | Süleyman Soylu | Hulusi Akar |
| Current President and AK Party leader | Nationalist Movement Party leader | Current Minister of the Interior | Current Minister of National Defense |
| People's Alliance candidate | Rejected by himself | Speculated | Speculated |
On 9 June 2022, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the leader of the Justice and Development Party and the incumbent president since 2014, announced that he would be a candidate in the 2023 presidential election. Erdogan's candidacy was supported by the other member parties of the People's Alliance, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the Great Unity Party (BBP). [2] [3] MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli stated more than once that the candidate for the People's Alliance would be Erdoğan. [4] [5] Some lawyers and opposition politicians stated that since Erdoğan was elected president twice in the 2014 and 2018 elections, he could not be a candidate again unless the parliament decided to hold early elections, according to the law. [6] Mustafa Şentop, Ersan Şen, Metin Feyzioğlu and other lawyers [7] said that the 2018 election was Erdoğan's first term, arguing that a new office was formed, apart from the name similarity, as the presidential system was adopted in 2018 following a constitutional referendum. [8] According to Freedom House, Erdoğan has the right to run again in the new system in 2023, as his first term ended early. [9] Stating that Erdoğan cannot be a candidate, the lawyers oppose this view by stating that the maximum term of office in the constitution has not been changed and in this case, the constitution should be taken as the basis, not the systems. [6]
There was speculation that if Erdoğan was not the candidate, possible alternatives would have been Minister of Interior Süleyman Soylu or Minister of National Defense Hulusi Akar. [10] [11]
| Possible Republican People's Party candidates | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |  |  |  |  | |
| Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu | Ekrem İmamoğlu | Mansur Yavaş | Lütfü Savaş | İlhan Kesici | Tanju Özcan |
| Republican People's Party leader | Istanbul mayor | Ankara mayor | Hatay mayor | Republican People's Party deputy | Bolu mayor |
| Nation Alliance candidate | Rejected by himself | Rejected by himself | Declared his interest | Speculated | Declared his interest |
| Other possible Table of Six candidates | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  | |
| Meral Akşener | Ali Babacan | Ahmet Davutoğlu | Temel Karamollaoğlu | Gültekin Uysal | Abdullah Gül | Haşim Kılıç | Muhtar Kent | Özgür Demirtaş |
| Good Party leader | DEVA Party leader | Future Party leader and former Prime minister | Felicity Party leader | Democrat Party leader | Former President of Turkey | Former Constitutional Court President | Business executive | Academician |
| Rejected by herself | Speculated | Speculated | Speculated | Speculated | Speculated | Speculated | Speculated | Speculated |
The Nation Alliance was founded by the opposition parties which made up the Table of Six: the Republican People's Party, the Good Party, the Democrat Party, the Felicity Party, DEVA Party and the Future Party. It was agreed that six political parties would not nominate more than one candidate and would agree on a common candidate in order to "not give the appearance of discrimination and competition". [12] At the meeting of Table of Six on 25 January 2023, it was discussed for the first time how the presidential candidate will be determined. [13] The Table of Six was expected to decide on a joint candidate at a meeting held on 13 February. [14] However, the meeting was postponed to 2 March due to the 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake.
There was a high degree of media speculation concerning possible candidates within the current main opposition party, the Republican People's Party, that could possibly run as its candidate for president. Party leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu's candidacy was supported by CHP deputies and mayors [15] such as parliamentary CHP group Deputy Chairman Özgür Özel, [16] Deputy Chairman Veli Ağbaba, [17] and mayor of Antalya Muhittin Böcek. [18] Despite this, according to opinion polls taken before any official candidate was declared, Kılıçdaroğlu was one of the least likely to win against Erdoğan among the possible CHP candidates. [19] [20]
The Table of Six met on 2 March 2023 to determine the candidate. Although the name of the candidate was determined that day, the name of the candidate would be announced later. [21] At the meeting, it was claimed that all parties, except the Good Party, approved Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu's candidacy. [22] His candidacy was officially announced on 6 March 2023. [23]
In the 2019 local elections and the repeat Istanbul mayoral election, the presidential candidacy debates continued about Ekrem İmamoğlu, who won against the AK Party candidate Binali Yıldırım twice and won the Istanbul mayorship that the AK Party held since 2004. İmamoğlu was considered to be one of the strongest candidates if he chose to run against Erdoğan in 2023. [24] In his own statement, he said "I do not have an agenda regarding the presidency" and stated that the process will be determined by the Table of Six. [25] [26]
Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavaş, who won against the ruling party's candidate in the 2019 Ankara mayoral election, was also among the possible candidates. Yavaş, like Ekrem İmamoğlu, was considered a strong candidate who could win against Erdoğan. [27] He was similarly ahead of Erdogan in most of the presidential election polls. [19] [28] On 6 December 2022, Yavaş answered a question regarding his potential candidacy saying, "We will obey whatever the Table of Six says." [29]
Victory Party Chairman Ümit Özdağ requested Mansur Yavaş to be nominated. [30] Özdağ later stated that if the Table of Six did not nominate Yavaş, they would propose a candidacy to Yavaş. [31] Peoples' Democratic Party parliamentary group Deputy Chairman Meral Danış Beştaş said that they were against Mansur Yavaş's candidacy. [32]
Although a member of the Nation Alliance, many members of the Good Party were noted as opposing a potential Kılıçdaroğlu candidacy throughout the electoral alliance's consideration of candidates. [33] [34] Orhun Erktürkmen, who is responsible for the youth policies of the Good Party, came out in support of the candidacies of İmamoğlu and Yavaş. [35]
On 2 March 2023, when the Table of Six met and decided to endorse Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu's presidential candidacy, some Good Party members made online posts to indicate that the party was against Kılıçdaroğlu's candidacy. [36] On 3 March 2023, the Good Party officially decided to leave the Table of Six because it did not support Kılıçdaroğlu as the joint candidate. [37] On the same day, Meral Akşener called for Ekrem İmamoğlu and Mansur Yavaş to be candidates in her statement. After this call, 5 CHP mayors, including Ekrem İmamoğlu and Mansur Yavaş, met with Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. [38] After the meeting, Akşener's call was rejected by İmamoğlu and Yavaş. [39] Three days later, the Good Party rejoined the Table of Six after its meetings with the CHP. [40]
Hatay mayor Lütfü Savaş [41] and Bolu mayor Tanju Özcan [42] announced that they would accept the presidential candidacy proposal. [42]
Area Research head Murat Karan claimed that if Kılıçdaroğlu did not run, Table of Six would nominate İlhan Kesici. [43]
Good Party leader Meral Akşener announced that she will not be a presidential candidate and that she will be a prime minister candidate if the strengthened parliamentary system supported by the main opposition is passed. [44] [45] Democracy and Progress Party leader Ali Babacan said he would accept it if he was nominated as a presidential candidate. [46]
On 11 March 2022, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said that one of the leaders in the Table of Six could be a candidate. [47] On 6 September 2022, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu made the statement that "Everyone has the right to be a candidate" for the candidacy of former president Abdullah Gül. [48] Abdullah Gül was also mentioned in the candidacy talks of the opposition in the 2018 Turkish presidential election. [49]
Journalist Nihat Genç claimed that the opposition's candidate would be former Constitutional Court Haşim Kılıç. Good Party Secretary Uğur Poyraz and CHP deputy Gürsel Tekin denied this claim. Tekin said that the candidate would be from the CHP. [50] Journalist Emin Çapa said in a statement on Halk TV that the candidate must be clear and has no ties to politics. Upon this statement, it was claimed that Muhtar Kent or Özgür Demirtaş would be candidates. These allegations were denied by the CHP and it was stated that neither of the two names would be candidates and that they did not have such a potential. [51]
| Possible Labour and Freedom Alliance candidates | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  |  |  |
| Selahattin Demirtaş [52] | Gültan Kışanak [53] | Rıza Türmen [54] | Ahmet Türk [55] | Şebnem Korur Fincancı [56] |
| Former Peoples' Democratic Party co-chair and political prisoner | Former Peace and Democracy Party co-chair | Former European Court of Human Rights judge | Former Democratic Society Party leader | President of the Turkish Medical Association |
| Speculated | Speculated | Speculated | Speculated | Speculated |
No candidate was put forth by the Labour and Freedom Alliance. Prior to its announcement on 22 March 2023, it was speculated that if the Nation Alliance nominated Kılıçdaroğlu, the alliance would not nominate a candidate. [57] After Kılıçdaroğlu was announced as the Nation's Alliance joint candidate, the Labour and Freedom Alliance chose to not nominate a candidate, which was seen as a strategic move to limit vote splitting against President Erdoğan. [58] The alliance later endorsed Kılıçdaroğlu's candidacy on 27 April. [59]
| Other possible candidates | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | |  |  |  |  |  |
| Sinan Oğan [60] | Muharrem İnce [61] | Doğu Perinçek [62] | Fatih Erbakan [63] | Mustafa Sarıgül | Cem Uzan [64] | Serdar Savaş [65] |
| Independent | Homeland Party leader | Patriotic Party leader | New Welfare Party leader | Party for Change in Turkey leader | Former Young Party leader | Scientist |
| Ancestral Alliance candidate | Homeland Party candidate | Declared his candidacy | Declared and withdrew | Speculated | Declared his candidacy | Declared his candidacy |
Sinan Oğan was nominated by the Ancestral Alliance, a right-wing electoral alliance formed to contest the 2023 elections headed by the Victory Party and Justice Party. [66] Oğan, a former member of the Nationalist Movement Party before becoming an independent, was announced as the alliance's joint presidential candidate on 11 March 2023. [67]
Muharrem İnce served as the presidential candidate for the Homeland Party, of which he was the leader and founder. The Homeland Party split from the Republican People's Party in 2020, after İnce served as the party's presidential candidate in his failed 2018 campaign against President Erdoğan. [68] [69] Initially he considered joining the Nation Alliance as well as the Ancestral Alliance, but announced on 6 March 2023 he was leaving the alliance and soon after announced his own candidacy. [70] This was considered mainly as a result of the choosing of as its joint presidential candidate, after earlier comments made by İnce stating that he wouldn't have considered supporting him under normal conditions. [71] [72] After qualifying for the ballot, three days before the election İnce withdrew himself from the race. [73] His name still appeared on the ballot.
Doğu Perinçek, the leader of the Patriotic Party and a candidate in the 2018 election, announced that he would be a candidate again. Fatih Erbakan announced his candidacy but later withdrew from the race and endorsed Erdogan. [74] [75] Former Young Party leader Cem Uzan and doctor Serdar Savaş are among those who also announced their candidacy. Mustafa Sarıgül, the leader of the Party for Change in Turkey, released a statement on his potential candidacy in January 2021, saying that his party would discuss the candidacy and make a decision. [76] After the Nation Alliance's candidate was determined as Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu on 6 March 2023, Sarıgül supported Kılıçdaroğlu's candidacy by saying, "The most suitable candidate for this transition period is Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu at that table." [77]
According to article 101 of the Constitution of Turkey, amended following the 2017 constitutional referendum, any political party that has won 5% of the vote in the previous parliamentary election can put forward a candidate. The remaining candidates were required to collect at least 100,000 signatures. [78]
Voters were able to give signatures to their preferred presidential candidate between 22 and 27 March at their local electoral council branch. [78]
On 24 March, the New Welfare Party decided to join the People's Alliance. After this decision, Fatih Erbakan announced that he had ended the candidacy process in favour of Erdoğan. [79]
| Party | Candidate | Daily signatures | Result | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 March [80] | 23 March [81] | 24 March [82] | 25 March [83] | 26 March [84] | 27 March [85] | ||||
| Homeland Party | Muharrem İnce | 28,235 | 51,367 | 76,901 |  104,357 | 109,745 | 114,657 | Nominated | |
| — | Sinan Oğan | 15,573 | 25,924 | 39,317 | 63,027 | 102,667 | 111,502 | Nominated | |
| New Welfare Party | Fatih Erbakan [lower-alpha 3] | 27,910 | 46,725 | 69,079 | 69,159 | 69,200 | 69,255 |  Not nominated | |
| Patriotic Party | Doğu Perinçek | 6,679 | 11,792 | 16,192 | 20,400 | 23,776 | 27,055 | Not nominated | |
| — | Yakup Türkal | 993 | 1,645 | 2,031 | 2,462 | 2,780 | 3,137 | Not nominated | |
| — | Erkan Trükten | 397 | 755 | 1,116 | 1,604 | 1,940 | 2,588 | Not nominated | |
| — | Ahmet Özal | 237 | 567 | 807 | 1,025 | 1,311 | 1,544 | Not nominated | |
| Justice Unity Party | İrfan Uzun | 176 | 319 | 447 | 698 | 1,001 | 1,263 | Not nominated | |
| — | Halil Murat Ünver | 119 | 211 | 285 | 369 | 444 | 538 | Not nominated | |
| — | Hilmi Özden | 60 | 151 | 225 | 333 | 405 | 478 | Not nominated | |
| — | Davut Turan | 34 | 68 | 92 | 106 | 111 | 122 | Not nominated | |
| Totals | 80,413 | 139,524 | 206,494 | 263,540 | 313,380 | 332,139 | |||
Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu is a Turkish politician and former leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP). He was Leader of the Main Opposition in Turkey between 2010 and 2023. He served as a member of parliament for Istanbul's second electoral district from 2002 to 2015, and as an MP for İzmir's second electoral district from 2015 to 2023.
Presidential elections were held in Turkey on 10 August 2014 in order to elect the 12th President. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was elected outright with an absolute majority of the vote in the first round, making a scheduled run-off for 24 August unnecessary.
General elections were held in Turkey on 7 June 2015 to elect 550 members to the Grand National Assembly. This was the 24th general election in the history of the Turkish Republic, electing the country's 25th Parliament. The result was the first hung parliament since the 1999 general elections. Unsuccessful attempts to form a coalition government resulted in a snap general election being called for November 2015.
Mansur Yavaş is a Turkish lawyer and politician who is currently the Mayor of Ankara, holding the office since April 2019. He was elected in the 2019 local election as the candidate of the Nation Alliance, an opposition alliance formed by the Republican People's Party (CHP) and the Good Party.
Muharrem İnce is a Turkish physics teacher, school principal, sport executive, and politician. He founded and is leader of the Homeland Party since May 2021. Formerly a four term Republican People's Party MP for Yalova, his hometown, he also served as the CHP's parliamentary group deputy chairman between June 2010 and August 2014.
The 18th Republican People's Party Extraordinary Convention took place on 5 and 6 September 2014 in order to elect a leader of the Republican People's Party, a Turkish centre-left political party. Initially, an ordinary convention was due to be held in 2014, two years after the previous one in 2012. However, the party's incumbent leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu accepted calls for an extraordinary convention to be held following the loss of the CHP's presidential candidate Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu in the presidential election held in August. The ordinary convention will thus be held in 2015 instead.
The 35th Republican People's Party Ordinary Convention took place on 16 and 17 January 2016, having originally been scheduled for 2014. The convention date was pushed back from 2014, when it was supposed to be held two years after the previous in 2012, due to the 18th Extraordinary Convention that was held in September 2014. It w held shortly after the CHP's defeat in the November 2015 general election. The party was expected to see challengers to the leadership of Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, however, Kılıçdaroğlu was re-elected with no other candidate challenging him.
Presidential elections were held in Turkey on 24 June 2018 as part of the 2018 general election, alongside parliamentary elections on the same day. They were the first presidential elections held after constitutional amendments were approved in a 2017 referendum.
The Nation Alliance, abbreviated as NATION, was an electoral and political alliance in Turkey, made up of six opposition parties to contest the 2023 Turkish general election against its main rival, the People's Alliance. Originally established prior to the country's 2018 general election, the alliance had consisted of four opposition parties across the political spectrum, which had found common ground on withstanding Turkey's newly established presidential system. The alliance dissolved in 1 June 2023 following its narrow defeat in the 2023 elections, after the Good Party's announcement that they were no longer a part of it.
Multiple political parties in Turkey underwent candidate selection processes in the run-up to the 2018 presidential election. Parties represented in the Grand National Assembly were able to field candidates directly by collecting signatures from at least 20 of their Members of Parliament, as were parties who had no representation but won more than 5% in the previous general election. Candidates that did not meet either criterion were required to obtain over 100,000 signatures from Turkish citizens between 4 and 9 May.
Ekrem İmamoğlu is a Turkish businessman, real estate developer, and social democratic politician serving as the 32nd Mayor of Istanbul. He was first elected with 4.1 million votes and won with a margin of 13 thousand votes against his AKP opponent in the March 2019 mayoral election as the joint Nation Alliance candidate of the Republican People's Party (CHP) and the Good Party, but served only from 17 April 2019 until 6 May 2019, when the election was annulled. He was then reelected in a renewed election on 23 June 2019 by an even larger margin of 800,000 votes. He had previously been the Mayor of Beylikdüzü, a western district of Istanbul, between 2014 and 2019.
The Homeland Party is a political party in Turkey that was founded on 17 May 2021 by Muharrem İnce, the former candidate of the Republican People's Party (CHP) in the 2018 Turkish presidential election.
The Victory Party is a right-wing to far-right, ultranationalist, anti-immigrant political party in Turkey founded on August 26, 2021 under the leadership of Ümit Özdağ. Party was represented in the Grand National Assembly by a single MP, Özdağ himself, until it failed to pass the electoral threshold in the 2023 election and therefore was barred from winning any seats.
In the run up to the 2023 Turkish presidential and parliamentary elections, held on 14 May 2023, various organizations carry out opinion polling to gauge voting intention in Turkey. Results of such polls are displayed in this article. These polls only include Turkish voters nationwide and do not take into account Turkish expatriates voting abroad. The date range for these opinion polls are from the previous general election, held on 24 June 2018, to the present day.
In the run up to the 2023 Turkish presidential election, with its first round held on 14 May and a second round on 28 May, various organisations carried out opinion polling to gauge voting intention in Turkey. Results of such polls are displayed in this article. These polls only include Turkish voters nationwide and do not take into account Turkish expatriates voting abroad. The date range for these opinion polls are from the previous general election, held on 24 June 2018, to the present day.
Presidential elections were held in Turkey in May 2023, alongside parliamentary elections, to elect a president for a term of five years. Dubbed the most important election of 2023, the presidential election went to a run-off for the first time in Turkish history. The election had originally been scheduled to take place on 18 June, but the government moved them forward by a month to avoid coinciding with the university exams, the Hajj pilgrimage and the start of the summer holidays. It is estimated that a total of 64 million voters had the right to cast their votes in elections, 60.9 million in Turkey and 3.2 million abroad.
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan began his candidate for the Presidential elections 2023 in April 2022. Erdoğan was the candidate of the People's Alliance consisting of the Justice and Development Party and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). Erdogan and his rival Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu both failed to secure a majority in the first round on 14 May and the election went to a run-off for the first time in Turkish history. On 28 May Erdogan won the election securing 52.18 percent of the vote and claimed victory after 99.4% of the votes were counted in the second round as the Supreme Election Council declared Erdoğan as mathematically elected.
Ancestral Alliance or Ancestor Alliance, stylized as ATA Alliance, was a right-wing electoral alliance in Turkey that was established on 11 March 2023 and consisted of the Victory Party, the Justice Party, the My Country Party and the Turkey Alliance Party. The candidate it has chosen for the 2023 Turkish presidential election is Sinan Oğan, a former Nationalist Movement Party deputy. The True Party left the alliance after Oğan was nominated as candidate.
Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leader of the Republican People's Party and İzmir deputy, became the joint presidential candidate of the Nation Alliance for the 2023 Turkish presidential election. He held a narrow lead in most poll aggregations, but nevertheless lost to incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Sinan Oğan became the joint presidential candidate of the Ancestral Alliance in the 2023 Turkish presidential election.
Anayasanın 101. maddesine göre; cumhurbaşkanlığına, siyasi parti grupları, en son yapılan genel seçimlerde toplam geçerli oyların tek başına veya birlikte en az yüzde 5'ini almış olan siyasi partiler ile en az 100 bin seçmen aday gösterebiliyor.