President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Sunday linked more than 300 opposition candidates in Turkey’s March 31 local elections to "terrorist organisations" and said they would be dismissed if they were to win.
"After the election, we, especially my party, will apply for cancellation of councillorships of some 300 people," Erdoğan said during a television interview, referring to his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). If some of those candidates will be elected mayor, he added, then the government would appoint administrators to replace them.
According to the president, Turkey’s opposition parties, led by the main opposition Republican Peoples’ Party (CHP) and pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), have nominated more than 300 candidates with links to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has been fighting for self-rule in Turkey for decades and has been labelled a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.
“There are full names and photos of those 325 people in the records including all the intelligence notes originally written in state language (on Turkish media)," Oğur wrote, arguing that the accused candidates would likely sue the state and the media for slander.