Apr 25, 2018

The Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) is gearing up to nominate its imprisoned former co-chair, Selahattin Demirtas, as its presidential candidate in the June 24 snap polls. In an executive board meeting today, the country'y largest pro-Kurdish bloc agreed on fielding Demirtas and is expected to make a formal announcement in the coming days, CNN Turk reported.

Though Demirtas faces a slew of terror charges over his alleged links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), there currently are no legal obstacles to his candidacy.

Accounting for some 18% of the electorate, the Kurds could tip the race. At his most recent courtroom hearing a defiant Demirtas echoed this view. “We are the ones who will determine the [outcome] of the presidential elections. We are the lock. We are the key.”

An estimated 8-10% of Kurdish voters are thought to be core HDP supporters with a remaining 6-7 % mostly pious conservatives voting for the Justice and Development Party (AKP). The rest are divided among the more radical Islamist Huda-Par and far-left groups. The military offensive against a Syrian Kurdish militia in Afrin and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's electoral alliance with ultranationalists, however, have alienated its Kurdish base.

Still, Demirtas is unlikely to win enough backing to face the leading contender Erdogan in a potential second round of balloting. But his halo effect could torpedo Erdogan’s calls to bury the HDP in parliamentary elections that will be held concurrently with the presidential ones.