Posted on 05/07/2018 3:19:44 PM PDT by Texas Fossil
Turkeys top Kurdish leader Selahattin Demirtas, one of the few names who proved he could challenge President Recep Tayyip Erdogans charisma, has decided to run in the June 24 presidential elections, seemingly undaunted by the bars of his prison cell.
Turkeys pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party (HDP) announced Demirtas candidacy May 4. Our candidate is Selahattin Demirtas, who is being held as a hostage in Edirne Prison, HDP Co-chair Pervin Buldan was quoted by Hurriyet Daily news as saying in a statement.
Turkeys westernmost province of Edirne is the farthest point from the predominantly Kurdish southeast where Demirtas main constituency is located.
Demirtas ran against Erdogan in the August 2014 presidential race, winning 9.8% of the votes, and, more importantly, raising hopes that for the next parliamentary elections a pro-Kurdish party might pass the 10% national election threshold for the first time in history.
Indeed, the HDP led by Demirtas won 13.1% of the vote on June 7, 2015, passing the threshold. Kicking that campaign off with a powerful slogan referring to Erdogans dream of an executive presidency We wont let you become president the HDPs election success also stripped the ruling Justice and Development Partys (AKP) of the parliamentary majority required to form a single-party government.
(Excerpt) Read more at al-monitor.com ...
It will be interesting to see how Erdogan the Islamist will handle this.
From a legal standpoint you’d want your candidate to be able to serve if elected.
But an ethnic minority party that gets around 10% of the vote is no threat to come close to winning so what does it matter. Several minor US parties have run candidates for Pres/VP that weren’t eligible.
This candidate has not broken any law except he ran against the dictator and got over 10% of the vote. And he is friendly to Kurds. It is common in Turkey to build a coalition government because normally no one wins the majority directly.
Now, with Erdogan the Islamist as the dictator with his emergency powers he can arrest whoever he likes and if he does not like how the court rules, he overturns the judgment and fires the Judge.
How is that for a system?
Maybe they should give them the George III treatment.
Whatever it takes.
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