An alliance of six of Turkey’s opposition parties nominated its main party leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu on Monday to challenge President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been in power for 20 years, in the May 14 presidential election. AFP and Agerpres report.

“Kemal Kilicdaroglu is our presidential candidate,” Temel Karamollaoglu, leader of the Felicity Party, told a crowd outside his party’s headquarters in Ankara, where leaders of six parties met on Monday.

The leaders of the other five Alliance parties, including Kilicdaroglu, were with him during the announcement.

Presidential and legislative elections were held on the scheduled date of May 14, despite the February 6 earthquake that killed more than 46,000 people and devastated entire areas in the south and southeast of the country.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP, Social Democrat) since 2010, has promised to return to a democratic framework if elected in May.

“Together we will establish the power of morality and justice,” Kilicdaroglu said. “We, as the Alliance of Nations, will govern Turkey on the basis of consultation and compromise,” he added. “Law and justice will win,” he emphasized.

Opinion polls have shown that the opposition alliance is well positioned to challenge Erdogan and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the election.

Erdogan’s government has faced heavy criticism over its handling of the earthquake emergency, and the Turkish president is expected to face his biggest election challenge of his two decades in power as soaring inflation has weighed on living standards.