Parties submit candidate lists for Nov 1 snap vote, AKP makes major changes

The major player in Turkey's interim government, the Justice and Development Party (AKP), has made striking changes to its candidate list for the Nov. 1 snap election compared to its lineup for the June 7 parliamentary election, in which the AKP's votes dropped almost 10 percent.

All political parties running in the Nov. 1 elections submitted their candidate lists to the Supreme Election Board (YSK) after the deadline closed at 5 p.m. on Sept. 18. While no major changes were seen in the lists of the Republican People's Party (CHP), the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), the other three parties which gained seats in parliament in the June 7 vote, the AKP preferred to initiate large-scale changes.

Only hours before the deadline, President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an's change of his regular choice for Friday prayers raised eyebrows. Erdo?an, who usually goes to a mosque in Ankara's Be?tepe neighborhood, the location of his palace, opted this time to perform prayers at a mosque inside the Çankaya Palace, which has been used as the premises of the Prime Ministry since he moved to Be?tepe. Because AKP leader and Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu was putting the final touches on the party's lists at the same time, the move by Erdo?an, the founding leader of the AKP, was widely considered as a last-minute intervention into the lists.

Surprisingly, former Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan was nominated by the AKP in Ankara, although he was not nominated for the highest decision-making body of the AKP during a congress held just a few days ago on Sept. 12. Likewise, Tu?rul Türke?, a deputy prime minister in the interim government, will also run in Ankara as an AKP candidate.

Earlier on Sept. 18, Türke?, who was...