Opposition fears Erdoğan could trigger snap elections

Turkey’s main opposition – the Republican People’s Party (CHP) – fears that the country’s authoritarian leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is planning snap elections to sidestep constitutional limits on his power and secure another term as president.

CHP sources told Euractiv that judicial interference in the opposition’s leadership race forms part of Erdoğan’s strategy to trigger elections that would bypass constitutional limits blocking him from a third presidential term.

“It is a huge signal that Erdoğan is going for a snap election,” said senior CHP figures. “He is crippling the main opposition.”

The Turkish political landscape has been in turmoil since a court ruling on 21 May reinstated a former presidential candidate, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, as the CHP’s leader.

The CHP, affiliated with the Party of European Socialists, supports a secular state against Erdoğan’s religious conservatism. The party alleges that the court decision was politically…