Muharrem Ince, a candidate for president of Turkey, dropped out of the race. One of four presidential hopefuls at odds with the six-party Nation Alliance was Ince, leader of the center-left Homeland Party. Kemal Kilicdaroglu, head of the biggest opposition party and one of Erdogan’s main opponents, has the support of the Nation Alliance. The loss of Ince should be an advantage for Kilicdaroglu.

In front of his party’s headquarters, Ince informed reporters that he was dropping out of the race. Although he had polled around 8% of the votes when he announced his candidacy, his popularity had dropped to around 2%, according to opinion polls. Erdogan, who has been Turkey’s prime minister and president since 2003, is currently facing a challenging re-election. It is expected that neither Kilicdaroglu nor Erdogan will receive more than 50% of the vote in the first round of voting.

Ince’s decision is set to strengthen the Nation Alliance, which has welcomed his withdrawal. Center-right Democrat Party’s Gultekin Uysal hopes that this will help their nation to take the “necessary step” and succeed in the first round. Despite pulling out of the presidential race, Ince’s Homeland Party plans to run in the parliamentary elections, and he has urged voters to support his party.

This is the second time Ince has run against Erdogan, having previously run in the 2018 presidential election as a member of Kilicdaroglu’s main opposition party. In that campaign, he won around 30% of the votes before breaking away; Ince blamed Kilicdaroglu for the move and in his statement today said that there will be “no excuses” if the opposition were to lose the election.