Turkey's grand opposition coalition, consisting of six parties, officially broke up today due to disagreements over the common candidate who was supposed to oppose the current president. Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the elections scheduled for May 14.

Erdogan has been in power for more than two decades and will go for a third presidential term in the elections. The elections will be held as planned, despite the devastating earthquake of February 6, which killed more than 45.000 people in the country.

The second strongest opposition party in the coalition, IJI, did not accept the candidacy of Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the president of the largest opposition Republican People's Party (CHP, Social Democratic Party). Kilicdaroglu's candidacy was supposed to be made official on Monday.

The founder and president of the party, Meral Aksener, in a televised address, expressed his regret for the election of Kılıçdaroğlu, assessing that it was the result of a "petty calculation" that did not correspond to the general interest of the Turks.

"The six on the table (the popular name of the opposition coalition) from yesterday can no longer reflect the will of the people," says the only woman among the opposition leaders.

"This coalition is no longer a platform of common sense, where possible candidates can be discussed, but has become a notary office working to confirm a single candidate," she warned. She invited the two popular mayors of Istanbul and Ankara, Ekrem Imamoglu и Mansoor Jawas, members of CHP, to run.

"Our country loves you, the people love you," she said after meeting with the leadership of her party. Although he supported "his president" Kemal Kilicdaroglu, Javas said on Tuesday that he was ready to fulfill his "duty" if the coalition asked him to do so.

Today, Imamoglu reiterated his support for the CHP president's candidacy. Some in the opposition think Kilicdaroglu, 74, a former senior official from the Alevi minority, lacks charisma compared to Erdogan, who likes to flaunt his leadership skills.

But Erdogan will have to answer questions about the slow response of rescue services in the first hours after the February 6 earthquake and the government's failure to foresee the danger of the quake. The 7,8-magnitude earthquake, which destroyed eleven provinces in southern Turkey, is also causing major logistical problems, including the displacement of 3,3 million people.