ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A candidate in Turkey's presidential election announced Thursday that he is withdrawing from the race, a move that is likely to bolster President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's main challenger.

Muharrem Ince, the leader of the center-left Homeland Party, was one of four contenders running for president in the May 14 election.

He had come under intense criticism for splintering the votes of the six-party Nation Alliance, which has united behind the candidacy of main opposition party leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, and of possibly forcing the presidential race into a second-round.

“I am withdrawing from the race,” Ince told reporters. “I am doing this for my country.”

Ince had polled around 8% of the votes when his candidacy was first announced, but his popularity ratings have since dropped to around 2%, according to opinion surveys.

Ince, however, said the Homeland Party, which he formed in 2021, would still run in the parliamentary elections, and he called for votes for the party “from each household.”

The 58-year-old former physics teacher had previously run against Erdogan in presidential elections in 2018 under the ticket of Kilicdaroglu's main opposition party, CHP. He had garnered around 30% of the votes but later broke away from the party.