CHP to determine candidates through large scale primary election

The government's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) will determine its candidates for the upcoming parliamentary elections on June 7 through primary elections that will be held on 55 of the total 85 constituencies.

CHP's speaker Haluk Koç gave a press conference following the party caucus and said that female candidates will be on the top of the ballot list of the constituencies in Turkey's three largest cities.

Koç stated that CHP had earlier amended its party codes to allow such a large scale primary election, and it is distinguished by almost all other Turkey's political parties with this feature.

In 45 constituencies, CHP members will be allowed vote in the primaries supervised by judges and nominations will be made according to the results of primaries. Afyonkarahisar, Aksaray, Amasya, Ankara, Antalya, Aydın, Balıkesir, Bartın, Bilecik, Bolu, Burdur, Bursa, Çanakkale, Çorum, Denizli, Düzce, Edirne, Erzincan, Giresun, Isparta, İstanbul, İzmir, Karabük, Karaman, Kırıkkale, Kırklareli, Kırşehir, Kilis, Konya, Kütahya, Manisa, Nevşehir, Niğde, Ordu, Osmaniye, Rize, Samsun, Sinop, Sivas, Uşak and Yozgat are the constituencies that the candidates will be determined by primary elections.

Whereas in 10 constituencies, which are Adana, Adıyaman, Kahramanmaraş, Kayseri, Malatya, Muğla, Mersin, Tekirdağ, Trabzon and Zonguldak, CHP members will vote under the supervision of party organization, however, party administration will have the final word on nominations.

Meanwhile, party administration will have reserved nominations in most of these constituencies.

For the remaining 30 constituencies, Koç said that 17 of these are constituencies that CHP received less than 10 percent national threshold in previous elections, and the rest are determined critical by the party caucus, which are Ağrı, Ardahan, Artvin, Batman, Bayburt, Bingöl, Bitlis, Çankırı, Diyarbakır, Elazığ, Erzurum, Gaziantep, Gümüşhane, Hakkari, Hatay, Iğdır, Kars, Kastamonu, Kocaeli, Mardin, Muş, Sakarya, Siirt, Şanlıurfa, Şırnak, Tokat, Tunceli, Van, Yalova and Eskişehir.

Party administration has the authority to determine the candidates in these constituencies in accordance with CHP's party code, Koç said.

Applications to CHP for candidacy in the upcoming elections will be availible during 17 and 24 February.