At the event in Diyarbakır’s Sur district, HDP co-chair Pervin Buldan read the statement announcing Demirtas’s candidacy.

“To those also asking which candidate we will be supporting in the second round [of the presidential election], we answer with self-confidence that we will support Selahattin Demirtas,” Buldan said.

“There is now only one alternative against the two alliances,” she added, referring to the “People Alliance” formed by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), and the opposition alliance formed by the Republican People’s Party (CHP), the IYI (Good) Party, the Felicity Party (SP) and the Democrat Party (DP).

Several deputies and supporters of the Kurdish party also gathered at the Abbasaga Park in Istanbul’s Besiktas district for the announcement, Hurriyet daily reported.

Demirtaş has been held in the Edirne Prison since November 2016 and is being tried in a series of cases, facing decades in jail on charges including “leading a terrorist organization.”

Meanwhile, Buldan also met with representatives of five Kurdish political parties in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır on May 4.

“The Kurdish alliance being formed ahead of the June 24 elections is very meaningful and important for the future of the Kurds. The demands conveyed to us by the delegations are also our demands,” she said after the meeting.

“We have taken these demands into consideration and we will respond as soon as possible,” she added.

The Kurdistan Democratic Platform, the Azadi Movement, the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK), the Kurdistan Socialist Party (PSK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (PDK-T) have declared their alliance for the election, with principals including Kurds’ right to self-determination, Kurdish being recognized as an official language, and respect for minority and women’s rights.

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