Turkey's Pro-Kurdish Party Hopes to Win Seats Despite Pressure From Authorities

ANKARA (Sputnik) - Turkey's pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) hopes to pass a 10-percent threshold and win parliamentary seats in the upcoming elections, scheduled for Sunday, despite pressure from the Turkish authorities, Hishyar Ozsoy, the party's deputy co-chair, told Sputnik Wednesday.

"Under normal circumstances, we are able to easily overcome the 10-percent barrier, but Erdogan, who heads the alliance [of AKP and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP)], resorts to harsh policies by using all available administrative resources to prevent us from winning. We hope that we will enter the parliament despite this pressure," Ozsoy said.

Sunday's snap election consists of two separate votes — a presidential and a parliamentary one. Six candidates will run in the election: Selahattin Demirtas from HDP, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan from the ruling Justice and Development (AKP) party, Muharrem Ince from the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), Meral Aksener from the iYi (Good) Party, Temel Karamollaoglu from the Felicity Party, and Dogu Perincek from the Patriotic Party.

READ MORE: Erdogan Calls on Turks to 'Give West Lesson' at Upcoming Presidential Election

On April 18, Erdogan announced the snap presidential and parliamentary elections, explaining the move by the need to switch to the presidential system in the country and enforce the constitutional amendments that were adopted after a referendum in April of last year. The elections were initially scheduled for November 3, 2019.