Recep Tayyip Erdoan is meeting with ATA Alliance chairman Sinan Ogan in Istanbul ahead of the May 28 runoff elections, presidential sources stated Friday.
According to insiders, the closed-door meeting lasted an hour.
The gathering has yet to be officially announced.
Binali Yldrm, Deputy Chair of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), recently stated that there is nothing President Recep Tayyip Erdoan and third contender Sinan Ogan cannot agree on since their speech is not that diametrically opposed.
Hardline nationalist Ogan, 55, entered the race at the last minute and received 5.2% of the vote in Sunday’s historic election, which went into a second round when neither Erdoan nor his major competitor Kemal Klçdarolu received more than 50% of the vote.
Erdoan finished with 49.5%, a wide advantage over Klçdarolu, who came in second with 44.9%.
However, Ogan, who is running as an independent, has emerged as a kingmaker and has basked in newfound prominence as a result of his prospective second-round support.
He is said to have snatched votes from both Erdoan and Klçdarolu, the leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and a joint candidate for an opposition group of six nationalist and secularist parties.