![]() He is certainly behaving like he is the nominee as he tours the country with his rhetoric about “changes to come” after election day, 30 March 2014. That candidate has not yet been announced, although as far as the Turkish press are concerned it will be Mr Sarıgül, the three-time mayor of Şişli who recently returned to the CHP. Mr Önder’s candidacy was much debated over concerns that he would split the left vote and hand the victory to Mr Topbaş over the CHP candidate. Mr Acar will face Mr Topbaş, the current mayor who has already been nominated as the AK Party candidate for a third term.Īlso running is Sırrı Süreyya Önder, MP for Istanbul and mayoral candidate for the Democratic Party of the Peoples (HDP), which is running in alliance with the pro-Kurdish BDP. That’s unlikely to happen when the country’s most important mayoralty is at stake. By deliberately not appointing the most recognisable name they have got, the MHP could be trying to turn a personality contest into one over policy. ![]() He has never been a member of parliament nor elected to any council. He then spent three years working in the transport department of the very council he now wants to lead. Mr Acar studied as a town planner at Istanbul Technical University. Instead, the nationalists have gone for Rasim Acar, who at 37 is three decades younger than Mr Durmuş. But it is still a surprise that the MHP decided not to respond to the populist candidates of its two bigger rivals with a poor imitation of its own. He hasn’t been in office since his party lost the 2002 election and has spent barely any of his career in Istanbul. Both of them are instantly recognisable and media-friendly. ![]() He would have been the MHP’s answer to Kadir Topbaş and Mustafa Sarıgül, respectively the nominee and presumptive nominee of Turkey’s two largest parties. ![]() It’s a surprise, because most commentators were expecting the nominee to be Osman Durmuş, a former health minister. Turkey’s third party, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), has announced an architect and transport planner as its candidate for mayor of Istanbul. We now have a better idea of who’s running for the third most important job in Turkish politics Kadir Topbaş, AK Party Mustafa Sarıgül, CHP (presumptive) Rasim Acar, MHP Sırrı Süreyya Önder, HDP
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