Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Özgür Özel spoke in Istanbul on Tuesday ahead of a critical convention of his party next month. Özel claimed that their opponents expected them to fight each other and would stop raising their voices on issues affecting the public. “It won’t happen. We are united,” Özel said next to Ekrem Imamoğlu, CHP’s mayor for Istanbul who helped Özel win the CHP’s top office last November.
The party will hold a charter convention soon and pledged a “change” within Türkiye’s oldest party. Özel’s predecessor Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu was rumored to challenge Özel for another intraparty election, while the Özel administration is accused of expelling members close to Kılıçdaroğlu by employing flimsy excuses. Those criticizing the party for its selection of candidates in the latest municipal race have been referred to the party’s disciplinary board.
Özel, who said last week that he will not run for the presidency in the 2028 elections like his predecessor, repeatedly highlighted a need for change in the party whose voter base remained more or less the same for decades. The necessity for change further manifested itself as the CHP’s main rival, the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), won every consecutive election in more than two decades, something credited with a diverse group of voters siding with the AK Party, unlike the CHP’s homogenous voters.
The CHP leader said the party is not “done” after disastrous results in the 2023 general elections, pointing out their unprecedented wins in the March 31 municipal elections.
Imamoğlu, whose victory in the 2019 municipal elections made him more popular than Kılıçdaroğlu among CHP voters and rumored to have plans to run for president in 2028, said at the same event that their critics were unaware of the “intraparty democracy” of the CHP. He underlined that he had faith in Özel ahead of the convention. “Our preparations (for the convention) are also a preparation to run the government,” Imamoğlu said.
“The CHP will change, Türkiye will change,” he added.
Encouraged by municipal gains, the CHP signaled that it might call for an early general election. Özel shies away from an open call but often highlights the necessity of an election amid what he calls an economic crisis in the country. He said in a recent interview that he would not run for the presidency four years later.
