The NDP and five allied parties will campaign against Erdogan’s “one-man rule,” its co-chair Pervin Buldan said.
While the PDP did not directly support opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the move avoids a formal split between the president’s rivals, who are eager to present a united front ahead of the May 14 vote.
PDP voters mostly see Kılıçdaroğlu as a politician who can help protect the rights of Turkey’s Kurdish minority, which makes up about a fifth of its 85 million population.
The party, which is currently the third largest in parliament, has been under pressure from the state since 2015, when it refused Erdogan’s AKP to form a majority in a surprise election result. She faces a potential ban due to allegations of separatism, but she can get around it by nominating parliamentary candidates on the ticket of another pro-Kurdish party, the Green Left.
The opposition’s growing unity highlights the challenge facing Erdogan as public backlash builds over last month’s earthquake and the deepest cost-of-living crisis in two decades.
Recall that the opposition chose Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), as its presidential candidate and formed an alliance seeking to attract voters from the left and right, as well as supporters of Islam.
