Parties contesting the June 2015 Turkish general election

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This is a list of all political parties eligible and intending to contest the Turkish general election of June 2015. Parties wishing to contest were required to send a full list of their candidates to the Supreme Electoral Council of Turkey by 17:00 local time on April 7, 2015. 20 of the 32 eligible parties submitted candidate lists. A full list of all political parties in Turkey is available here.

Contents

Parties eligible

On 1 February, the Supreme Electoral Council of Turkey announced that 32 parties fit the criteria in order to field candidates in the general election. In order to be eligible, parties need to have formed local organisations at least six months before the election and have completed their party congresses by the election. Furthermore, they need local party offices in at least half of the 81 Provinces of Turkey. The eligible parties who are intending to contest the election by fielding partisan candidates are listed as follows.

PartyLeader
ANAPAR Anatolia Party Emine Ülker Tarhan
MEP Centre Party Abdurrahim Karslı
KP Communist Party Özlem Şen Abay
MYP Conservative Ascension Party Ahmet Reyiz Yılmaz
DP Democrat Party Gültekin Uysal
DSP Democratic Left Party Masum Türker
DGP Democratic Progress Party İdris Bal
SP Felicity Party Mustafa Kamalak
İLKFirst PartyEran Tapan
HÜDA-PAR Free Cause Party Zekeriya Yapıcıoğlu
ÖDP Freedom and Solidarity Party Alper Taş
BBP Great Union Party Mustafa Destici
YURT-P Homeland Party Sadettin Tantan
BTP Independent Turkey Party Haydar Baş
AKP Justice and Development Party Ahmet Davutoğlu
EMEP Labour Party Selma Gürkan
LDP Liberal Democrat Party Cem Toker
MP Nation Party Aykut Edibali
MİLAD Nation and Justice Party Mehmet Bozdemir
MHP Nationalist Movement Party Devlet Bahçeli
VP Patriotic Party Doğu Perinçek
HYP People's Ascent Party Ragıp Önder Günay
HTKP People's Communist Party of Turkey Umut Kuruç
HKP People's Liberation Party Nurullah Ankut
HDP Peoples' Democratic Party Selahattin Demirtaş
CHP Republican People's Party Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu
HEPAR Rights and Equality Party Osman Pamukoğlu
HAK-PAR Rights and Freedoms Party Fehmi Demir
HAP Rights and Justice Party Yiğit Zeki Öztürk
TURK-P Social Reconciliation Reform and Development Party Ahmet Eyüp Özgüç
DYP True Path Party Çetin Özaçıkgöz
GP Young Party Cem Uzan

Parties fielding candidates

Parties that intended to contest the election were required to hand their candidate lists to the Supreme Electoral Council of Turkey (YSK) by 5pm local time on 7 April. 20 parties presented candidate lists before the deadline, while another, the First Party, was delayed by 22 minutes due to a traffic accident. [1] The parties are listed below according to their position on the ballot paper.

The number of electoral districts in which the party is fielding candidates is shown in brackets after the party's name.

Ballot #PartyLeaderPositionIdeologyDistricts contested
1DYP True Path Party Çetin Özaçıkgöz Centre right Economic liberalism 56
2ANAPAR Anatolia Party Emine Ülker Tarhan Centre left Kemalism 85
3HAK-PAR Rights and Freedoms Party Fehmi Fırat Left wing Kurdish nationalism 75
4KP Communist Party Özlem Şen Abay Far left Communism 85
5MP Nation Party Aykut Edibali Centre right Turkish nationalism 85
6HAP Rights and Justice Party Yiğit Zeki Öztürk Centre Social Justice 43
7MEP Centre Party Abdurrahim Karslı Centre Centrism 73
8TURK-P Social Reconciliation Reform and Development Party Ahmet Eyüp Özgüç Centre Centrism 55
9HKP People's Liberation Party Nurullah Ankut Left wing Communism 85
10LDP Liberal Democrat Party Cem Toker Centre right Liberalism 58
11MHP Nationalist Movement Party Devlet Bahçeli Right wing Turkish nationalism 85
12HDP Peoples' Democratic Party Selahattin Demirtaş Left wing Democratic socialism 85
13SP Felicity Party (National Alliance with the BBP) Mustafa Kamalak Far right Islamism 85
14CHP Republican People's Party Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu Centre left Social democracy 85
15AKP Justice and Development Party Ahmet Davutoğlu Right wing Conservative democracy 85
16DSP Democratic Left Party Masum Türker Centre left Social democracy 85
17YURT-P Homeland Party Saadettin Tantan Centre right Turkish nationalism 56
18DP Democrat Party Gültekin Uysal Centre right Economic liberalism 85
19VP Patriotic Party Doğu Perinçek Left wing Left-wing nationalism 85
20BTP Independent Turkey Party Haydar Baş Centre Kemalism 85

Parties contesting as independents

Since the parliamentary threshold of 10% does not apply to independent candidates, parties who poll significantly below the threshold may contest the election by fielding their candidates as independents in order to increase their chances of getting elected. This was a tactic employed by Kurdish nationalist parties during the 2007 and 2011 election. In the latter, the Peace and Democracy Party candidates won 5.67% of the vote and 35 were elected since they contested the election as independents and rejoined the BDP shortly after taking their seats.

The following parties have expressed intention of fielding independent candidates for the election.

PartyLeader
HEPAR Rights and Equality Party Osman Pamukoğlu
HÜDA-PAR Free Cause Party Zekeriya Yapıcıoğlu

Electoral alliances

The following electoral alliances were made between parties in the run-up to the election.

The True Path Party (DYP) expressed its intention to form an alliance with six other parties in order to overcome the 10% election threshold. [6] The party's leader Çetin Özaçıkgöz met with the leaders of the Centre Party, Rights and Equality Party (HEPAR) and the Great Union Party (BBP). [6] In the end, no alliance was formed.

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References

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