Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused his rivals of political squabbling after the opposition alliance failed to come up with a joint presidential candidate ahead of elections in May.
“They sat, they talked and they dispersed,” President Erdogan said in Istanbul on Saturday after six opposition leaders met this week without reaching an agreement about a candidate. In an attempt to turn the tables on critics of his handling the humanitarian crisis caused by two deadly earthquakes, Erdogan said his own focus was on people. “Our concern is lives,” he told reporters.
Erdogan has been sharply criticized over the government’s response to the earthquakes, which have killed more than 45,000 people. The Turkish president has said elections would take place as planned on May 14, despite the turmoil caused by the disaster in the country’s southeast.
A failure to endorse a joint presidential candidate sent the main Turkish opposition alliance, known as the Table of Six, into disarray on Friday. Meral Aksener, leader of the center-right IYI Party, rejected the candidacy of social democrat politician Kemal Kilicdaroglu. Aksener said she had proposed Istanbul or Ankara mayors as a joint candidate, but was rebuffed by other leaders.
With less than three months left before the election, the disagreement among opposition parties triggered a sharp drop in Turkish equities, with the benchmark index falling as much as 3.9% on Friday. The 10-year yield jumped 83 basis points to close the week at 11.56%, the highest level since Feb. 14.
