We will vote in 2019 to save democracy: CHP head Kılıçdaroğlu

ANKARA

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has called on “all democracy defenders” to go to the polls in upcoming elections due in 2019, vowing victory over the ruling Justice and Developing Party (AKP).

“We have to act together as people who want democracy. There isn’t any party in this, there is no right or left, no identity. It is a work about democracy,” Kılıçdaroğlu said on April 8, speaking at an event with Roma citizens in Istanbul.

Stating that the main opposition party “is against discrimination,” he urged Roma citizens to go to the polls in the upcoming 2019 elections.

“We will go to the polls in 2019 and we will bury the dictatorial administration and its dictators in the ballot boxes. We will bring a first-class democracy to Turkey,” he added.

“We have two options in 2019: Democracy or dictatorship. All of your problems can be solved within democratic measures. Roma people should tell [the ruling party] to ensure their social security, their right to find a job. They do not deserve poverty. They will express themselves within democracy. The other option is a one-man regime in which you will not talk and you will not criticize,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.

Rally against privatization of sugar

One day earlier, the CHP leader spoke at a rally in the Central Anatolian province of Çorum, where thousands gathered to protest the privatization of sugar plants across the country.

“We are not just defending sugar, we are defending Turkey. This meeting is not a meeting of a party, it is a meeting of the republic, the country, sugar, agriculture, workers, honest earning,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.

Supported by the İYİ (Good) Party, the Felicity Party (SP), and the Democrat Party (DP), the rally was organized under the motto: “Sugar is the homeland. It cannot be sold.”

It came after the Privatization Administration announced the opening of bids for 14 of 25 state-owned sugar plants in Turkey, drawing condemnation from the opposition.

“We are forming an alliance of the homeland. They are forming an alliance of seats. This is not a rally for a party but a rally for the country,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.

Stressing that the plants were established with the foundation and development of the Republic of Turkey, he said they have “a strategic value.”

“Sugar beet means employment of unskilled labor. Sugar factories are strategic. In Van’s Erciş district there is only one plant in the whole village. Closing the sugar factory there means destroying Erciş,” Kılıçdaroğlu added.