Turkey's Oppn party withdraws from alliance over elections candidate split

Ankara, March 4 Turkey's nationalist IYI Party (Good Party) broke ranks with the Opposition alliance ahead of key elections in May, a move likely to favour Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.

IYI Party leader Meral Aksener on Friday said the five other parties in the alliance chose Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the main Opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), as the candidate to challenge Erdogan in the upcoming elections scheduled for May 14.

The proposal was an imposition on IYI Party, the second biggest in the alliance, to force the party to choose Kilicdaroglu, Aksener added.

A joint candidate should be designated according to public survey results, she noted, adding either Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavas or Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu could perform better against Erdogan, Xinhua news agency reported.

The alliance of six Opposition parties no longer represented the national will, the party leader told reporters.

Aksener's statement came a day after the six Opposition party leaders held a meeting where they discussed the joint presidential candidate for the elections in May.

"Our demand was rejected," she said.