Sixty members of the Democratic Society Party (DTP) will contest the polls as independents, a strategy designed to circumvent a 10-percent national threshold that has kept Kurdish parties outside parliament.

Drawing on strong support in the mainly Kurdish southeast, between 20 and 30 of them, according to opinion surveys, are expected to win seats before regrouping under the DTP banner once in parliament.

In Diyarbakir, the largest city of the Kurdish-majority southeast, excitement is in the air: the posters of Kurdish candidates adorn billboards, music blares from the loudspeakers of vans and hundreds of party volunteers are canvassing for support.

"We will vote for our own to show that we exist in this country, that we also have a voice," said 22-year-old Ferhat as he pushed his vegetable cart through the dusty streets of the city's slums.

The Kurdish candidates campaign for reconciliation between Turks and Kurds, calling on Ankara to abandon the military option against the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and expand Kurdish freedoms to pave the way for a peaceful settlement of the 23-year conflict.

But they have no illusions of a warm welcome in Ankara.

The DTP is widely suspected of being a PKK tool to advance separatist ambitions.

Its line-up of candidates includes militant lawyers of jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, accused of being intermediaries between the rebel chief and his troops.

"We know it will be difficult, but we will act sensibly," said one of them, Aysel Tugluk. "People will get to know us better in parliament and see that we are not monsters."

The PKK stepped up violence this year, sending nationalist sentiment into a frenzy and prompting calls for a military incursion into neighbouring northern Iraq, where the rebels take refuge.

The DTP has angered Ankara for refusing to condemn the PKK as a terrorist group, a label endorsed by the European Union and the United States, among others.

"The PKK is not simply a gang of armed men. They have strong support among the Kurdish people," said another candidate, Selahattin Demirtas. "If we condemn them, it will amount to condemning the people."

The DTP denies any links with the PKK, but members privately admit that the rebels have influence in the party.

"The success of our MPs will depend on how the establishment treats them and on whether the PKK will back democracy or pressure the deputies into adopting radical policies," one party member said.

The DTP wants amnesty for the PKK; Ankara insists the rebels should surrender.

The first stint in parliament of Kurdish politicians campaigning for minority rights ended in disaster in 1994, when their immunity was lifted on charges of aiding the PKK.

The group camped inside parliament for two days to avoid arrest, but eventually gave up. Some of them, including human rights award winner Leyla Zana, were jailed; others went into exile and one joined the PKK.

Since then, Turkey, under EU pressure, has granted the Kurdish minority a measure of cultural freedom and lifted emergency rule in the southeast.

Kurds, however, still complain of discrimination and ask for Kurdish to be taught in schools and used in all fields of public life.

Rampant poverty also remains a major problem in the region.

In the shantytowns of Diyarbakir, unemployment is estimated at about 70 percent. Many villages still lack running water and electricity.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party also enjoys support among the Kurds, who credit it with easing access to medical care, providing free textbooks and food aid for the poorest.

"What has the DTP done for us?" housewife Necla grumbled outside her ramshackle house. "I care about my home and my children. That's why my vote goes to Tayyip."