A senior official from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) said the party’s chair, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, would be “reelected again in the first round of elections.”
The party’s deputy chair, Erkan Kandemir, was speaking at a district congress of the party in northwestern Türkiye’s Kocaeli on Sunday. The AK Party launched a congress process following the March 31 municipal elections to reshuffle its cadres. Erdoğan said this was the last election he would see in office after that election.
Erdoğan was elected president in 2023 in his first runoff, cementing his place in Turkish politics. He dominated as prime minister and president for more than two decades, a record for any Turkish politician. His tenure will end in 2028.
Kandemir said Erdoğan would be elected again “if Allah willing” in the first-round election and without a runoff. “We will reinforce our unity as the People’s Alliance as well and will retain a majority in Parliament again,” Kandemir said, referring to the alliance led by the AK Party and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli has also reiterated their adherence to the alliance and expressed his desire to see Erdoğan as president again. In a speech earlier this month, Bahçeli stated that a constitutional amendment should be considered to allow the president to run again in elections set for 2028.
Erdoğan is serving his last term as president unless Parliament calls an early election, according to the Constitution. “Wouldn’t it be a natural and right choice to have our president elected once again if terror is eradicated and if a heavy blow is dealt to inflation and Türkiye?” said Bahçeli.
Another Erdoğan term is possible through a constitutional change that can be put to a referendum. It will need the approval of 360 lawmakers in the Parliament, where the AK Party has 265, and MHP has 50 seats.
It is unclear who the AK Party will pick if Erdoğan decides not to run again. He is the favorite candidate even for the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), whose unlucky streak against the AK Party was partly broken when it defeated some AK Party mayors in the March 31 vote.
CHP leader Özgür Özel said it would be “a healthy democratic process” if Erdoğan runs again and they win against him, as he called for an early election in September. He said they would favor the 2026 spring or next November for an early election.
Defeating Erdoğan will undoubtedly turn around the fortunes of the CHP, where Özel’s predecessor Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu lost in the 2023 general election. Özel himself does not consider running against Erdoğan and recently implied that the party’s popular mayors, Ekrem Imamoğlu and Mansur Yavaş, could be nominated as presidential candidates in 2028.