Turkey’s opposition coalition on March 6 reunited and selected Kemal Kilicdaroglu as its challenger to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in elections expected on May 14.

On February 3, the IYI Party (Good Party) walked out of the coalition, arguing that the 74-year-old quietly-spoken Kilicdaroglu, leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), lacks what it takes to dethrone authoritarian president of two decades Erdogan and that one of either Ekrem Imamoglu or Mansur Yavas—the popular CHP mayors of Istanbul and Ankara, respectively—should be made the challenger. The compromise that has brought the six-party opposition alliance back together is that should Kilicdaroglu—sometimes known as “Gandhi Kemal” for his resemblance to the Indian civil rights leader— beat Erdogan, Imamoglu and Yavas would be appointed as vice presidents.

Wolfango Piccoli at political risk consultancy Teneo said in a note that the crisis that beset the coalition, known as the Nation Alliance or Table of Six, for around 72 hours was now apparently solved.

“Barring any last-minute surprise in what remains a fairly fluid situation, the CHP leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, will be nominated as the main opposition presidential candidate. Further talks among the opposition leaders will likely be needed to spell out the mandates of Imamoglu and Yavas as Vice Presidents,” said Piccoli.

“A new arrangement with the leaders of the four smaller parties that are part of the Nation Alliance will also be needed as, according to an earlier deal, they were all set to become Vice Presidents. This is no longer a realistic prospect given the compromise reached earlier today by [IYI Party leader Meral] Aksener and Kilicdaroglu—a deal that is likely to have left the leaders of the four smaller parties with a bitter taste in their mouths.”

After the deal was hammered out, Kilicdaroglu addressed a crowd of about 2,000 people gathered in Ankara, saying: "Our table is the table of peace. Our only goal is to take the country to days of prosperity, peace and joy."

"We will govern Turkey with consultation and consensus," he said.

This year brings the centennial of the establishment of the Republic of Turkey and many see the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections as the most consequential in the republic’s history.

The opposition bloc has pledged to reverse many of 69-year-old Erdogan's policies on the economy, civil rights and foreign affairs.

Among charges against Erdogan that the former civil servant Kilicdaroglu will hope to make stick among enough of the highly polarised electorate are that the president is guilty of economic mismanagement that has plunged Turkey into years of economic crisis marked by rampant inflation and the destruction in value of the Turkish lira, and that it was corruption, laxity and ineptitude that produced so many buildings in Turkey that were unable to withstand the major earthquakes that hit the south of the country on February 6, causing the deaths of more than 46,000 people (the latest death toll, with the final total set to be substantially higher by the time of the elections).

However, there are worries that the elections will not be fair and that Kilicdaroglu, who is dogged by the jibe that so far in his long political career he’s only been a success as a failure, won’t have the charisma to topple Erdogan, known as a masterful campaigner.

An immediate task for Kilicdaroglu, also a former economist, is to persuade Turkey’s third biggest party in parliament, the pro-Kurdish minority People’s Democratic Party (HDP), to back his challenge to Erdogan.

The early signs on that front are encouraging. Reuters reported HDP co-leader Mithat Sancar as saying on March 6 that her party would back Kilicdaroglu after "clear and open" talks.

"Our clear expectation is a transition for a strong democracy. If we can agree on fundamental principles, we may support him in presidential elections," she said.

The opposition coalition has pledged to end the powerful executive presidency Erdogan created via a controversial referendum vote, taking Turkey back to parliamentary democracy to put an end to “one-man rule”.

As an autocratic ruler, Erdogan is also seen to have ended the independence of the central bank, taking control of monetary policy. The opposition coalition has said it will restore the independence.

Some NGOs that campaign for democratic and human rights warn that a victory for Erdogan could spell the end of what is left of Turkey’s democracy.