Turkish opposition candidate Muharrem İnce announced Thursday he was pulling out of the presidential race, in a surprise move just three days before the election.
İnce’s withdrawal is set to benefit the main opposition candidate, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who is currently neck and neck with longtime President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the polls — and it could even allow Kılıçdaroğlu to claim outright victory in the first round.
“I’m withdrawing from the race. I am doing this for my homeland,” İnce said at a press conference, according to Bloomberg. Earlier Thursday, the Ankara public prosecutor’s office said it was opening an investigation after a sex tape allegedly showing İnce surfaced on social media.
İnce denied the authenticity of the footage late Wednesday, saying the video was “fake” and part of a “conspiracy.”
İnce, who is currently polling around 2 percent according to POLITICO’s Poll of Polls, has been diverting votes from the main opposition candidate, Kılıçdaroğlu, who is supported by a six-party coalition uniting parties from left and right against Erdoğan.
His withdrawal from the race could allow Kılıçdaroğlu, who is currently polling at 49 percent, to win the race in the first round.
Erdoğan, who is trailing in the polls with 46 percent of the vote, is facing the toughest reelection battle of his 20-year rule on Sunday, as Turkey grapples with double-digit inflation.
If neither candidate gets over 50 percent in the first round, the election will go to a runoff on May 28.
In the last presidential election in 2018, Erdoğan defeated İnce, who was then running as a candidate of the main center-left opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), in the first round, winning 52.6 percent of the vote.
İnce entered this year’s race at the last minute under the new Homeland Party, which he created in 2021 after falling out with CHP chief Kılıçdaroğlu.