A smart choice by Turkish opposition for presidency

After weeks of meetings, the two major opposition parties have come up with a joint candidate for the first round of the presidential elections set for Aug. 10.

Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) suggested Dr. Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, the former head of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), to Devlet Bahçeli of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), in a meeting on June 16 and received his “full support.”

With this move, the opposition has announced a candidate before the government. It is still not clear whether Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Parti) government will announce his candidacy, despite the fact that he has made it clear repeatedly that he wants to become Turkey’s next president.

For many, İhsanoğlu as the CHP’s choice was a surprise. It breaks some taboos as the secularist and social democratic CHP decided that the former head of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC) should be the next president.

But at a closer look, one can see a smart tactical calculation behind the move, for a number of reasons:

1- The first one to come up with the concept of a joint candidate was Bahçeli of the MHP. He had said that such a candidate should be patriotic, conservative, democratic, secularist and with high moral values.

2- At that point, the CHP was considering coming up with its own candidate. But in time Kılıçdaroğlu came to the conclusion that with only a CHP candidate it would not be possible to expand its own voter base, but with a non-partisan, respected name there would be such a possibility. This had been tested with a former MHP candidate like...