Combative spoiler enters Turkey’s election campaign

Turkey's top politicians have formed two camps heading into May's election: those who revere President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and those united in the single goal of ending his two-decade rule.

Then Muharrem Ince came along.

The Turkish leader's chief rival in the last election in 2018 all but vanished after picking up 30.6 percent of the vote.

Erdogan's 52.6 percent allowed him to extend a run that has seen his Islamic-rooted party become Turkey's most transformative force since the secular state's creation by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk 100 years ago.

A lot has happened since Ince's defeat.

Six disparate parties have built an anti-Erdogan alliance and -- after a year-long debate -- rallied around the candidacy of secular CHP party leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu in the May 14 vote.

A major pro-Kurdish party has also given Kilicdaroglu its tacit support. The opposition alliance is the most multi-faceted and seemingly popular of any Erdogan has faced at the ballot box.

This makes Ince's decision to run again particularly frustrating for Erdogan's political foes.

"This is bad news for the opposition," Sabanci University political science assistant professor Berk Esen told AFP. "Ince's ability to draw votes from the CHP and (its junior partner) the Iyi Party could have a spoiler effect and force the presidential election to a second round."

Ince (pronounced Indzhe) represented the CHP in the last election because the party felt the more mild-mannered Kilicdaroglu had less public appeal.

His passionate speeches and combative persona mimicked Erdogan's own campaign style and drew huge crowds in the last campaign.

Hopes were high -- and the disappointment deep.

Ince's defeat was followed by an hours-long silence that he broke by sending a curt text message to a reporter saying simply: "the man won".