The man touted as the future of Turkish democracy fidgets a little, touching a delicate red-string bracelet on his wrist. “These elections are not being held under suitable conditions,” he said. “But despite it all, we will win. Because people want democracy.”
Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, a former civil servant and ex-accountant, is Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s key rival and when the Guardian speaks to him, he has just finished one of the most important rallies of his career. The opposition leader, who heads the Republican People’s party (CHP), promised thousands of Turkish citizens assembled in an Istanbul park that when they go to the polls on Sunday they will be able to vote out Erdoğan and dismantle a system that he and his Justice and Development party (AKP) have spent two decades building.
