Entering the elections under an electoral bloc with the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), the right-wing Good Party (IP) failed to benefit from the alliance, losing in all 22 provinces they entered with their own candidates.
Under the scope of the Nation Alliance, the CHP and the IP fielded joint candidates in 51 province centers, including 23 metropolitan municipalities. Accordingly, the IP nominated candidates in 10 metropolitan municipalities and 12 province centers, while the CHP fielded its own nominees in 13 metropolitan municipalities and 16 province centers.
IP candidates lost the elections against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in Balıkesir, Denizli, Gaziantep, Kayseri, Kocaeli, Konya, Sakarya, Trabzon, Samsun, Afyonkarahisar, Aksaray, Düzce, Elazığ, Isparta, Kilis, Kırıkkale, Nevşehir, Tokat and Yozgat provinces. Its candidates also failed to win elections against Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) candidates in Manisa, Karabük and Osmaniye.
However, supported by the IP electorate, CHP's candidates enjoyed the benefit of the Nation Alliance by winning 10 metropolitan municipalities and 10 provinces.
The party received 7.45 percent of the votes nationwide and finished third, compared to its fifth position with 9.96 percent of the votes. However, while the MHP, winning 156 municipalities in total with a 7.31 percent share in votes, the IP only won 18.
Before the elections, many pundits highlighted that the IP was tricked into alliance talks with the CHP as it left provinces with a low chance of winning in line with the negotiations, considering the results of the June 24, 2018 elections.
Manisa, for instance, where the People's Alliance gathered 51.7 percent of the votes in the June 24 elections, compared to the 39.9 percent of the votes of the Nation Alliance between the two parties, was left to an IP candidate.
The CHP also decided to not to nominate candidates and support the IP in western provinces, including Isparta, Afyonkarahisar and Denizli, where the AK Party and the MHP have strong voter bases.
Compared to Nation Alliance's votes in June 24, 2018 general elections, the IP candidates increased votes in Afyonkarahisar by 12 percent and in Denizli by 3 percent. However, the IP candidate backed by the CHP in Isparta received 28.64 percent of the votes, compared to the 34.9 percent combined votes of Nation Alliance parties.
Gaziantep was another example of futile provinces given to the IP, which had 21.8 percent of the votes in the province in the June 24 elections. In Sunday's elections, AK Party candidate Fatma Şahin got a win by garnering 54 percent of the votes, compared to 16.42 percent of IP's Ejder Demir. However, the key figure in the elections was runner-up Celal Doğan with 26.21 percent of the votes. Doğan was a former mayor from the CHP and served briefly as a Gaziantep deputy from the pro-PKK Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and ran as a Democratic Left Party (DSP) candidate on March 31.
The alliance talks between the IP and the CHP for the local elections were also in the spotlight with numerous discussions and objections from the party organizations. Local party organizations protested their administration for not consulting them for the alliance negotiations over their provinces. Even some of them resigned from their post in protest of the administrations.
Having failed to dislodge MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli in a heated judicial process, the MHP dissidents left the party in 2016 and founded the IP under Meral Akşener's leadership in October 2017. Akşener first created a splinter movement within the party, then quit and formed her own. Much like its parent party, the IP has a nationalist stance.
Therefore, the party's administration received harsh criticism from its voter base due to veiled support of the HDP to Nation Alliance candidates in big provinces, including Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir. During the campaign process, the CHP and IP have refrained from officially including the HDP in their electoral alliance amid fears of a possible backlash from its secular-nationalist voter base.
