We will go to polls, not streets to protest: CHP leader

ANKARA

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu on Jan. 5 said his party would urge citizens to go to the polls to change the ruling party but would not call for any protests on the streets.

“The gentleman wants us to take to the streets. We will not. He will force, put pressure, but we will not go out. We will do what is necessary at the ballot box,” Kılıçdaroğlu told reporters.

“They want to create a special area of conflict; we do not fall into that trap. This is what he dreams and is waiting for,” the CHP leader said.

He was responding to the remarks by President Recep Tayyip that the opposition parties were going to take to the streets.

Regarding the possibility of early elections, Kılıçdaroğlu said, “Erdoğan has to go to early elections. The country has come to an unmanageable point.”

The politician said they would continue holding rallies but would focus more on meeting with professional organizations, opinion leaders, non-governmental organizations and young people. “I think these meetings are more productive than rallies,” he said

Kılıçdaroğlu said he wants to meet people who do “not sympathize with or vote for the CHP; on the contrary, people who are a little distant from us, but who wonder.”

“People who wonder what does the CHP thinks. Let them ask questions, let them get to know us, let’s get to know them,” he said.

“In a sense, it is something like the beginning of the halal process [say your goodbyes]. I take these meetings very seriously,” Kılıçdaroğlu added.

Asked how the opposition would overcome the economic crisis if they come to the power, Kılıçdaroğlu said the first thing they would do in a week is to establish the Strategic Planning Organization.

“What is the income and expenditure of this country? How much money is there in which funds? Where is the money spent? If you do not know all the figures, you cannot manage it properly,” he stated.