The opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) will not name a candidate for the presidential election due to take place in 2019, MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli said.
According to Bahçeli, the party will support ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) leader and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
"The MHP will not present a presidential candidate. The leader of the MHP will not be a presidential candidate. The MHP is loyal to the spirit that was initiated on Aug. 7, 2017," Hurriyet Daily cited the MHP leader as saying.
He was referring to the period after the July 15, 2016 coup attempt that created the groundwork for an alliance between the MHP and the AKP in a mass rally in Istanbul’s Yenikapı on August 7, 2017. The two parties subsequently teamed up to prepare for the referendum on shifting to an executive presidential system, which was narrowly approved by voters on April 16, 2017.
Bahçeli said the alliance would continue in the upcoming elections in 2019, where the system change stipulated by the constitutional amendment that grants weeping powers to the president-elect will go fully in effect.
