A record number of applications have been made to the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) to be the next mayor in the party's stronghold western İzmir province.
More than 200 people applied for the province and its districts, in which the CHP is widely expected to be the guaranteed winner in the upcoming local elections in March 2019, while nine names including some former deputies of the party applied to be the next mayor.
The party has already announced the names of approximately 100 candidates for various provinces, but the majority of their candidates are expected to be finalized in November.
Meanwhile, the CHP's candidates for other major metropolitan municipalities including Istanbul, Ankara are expected to be determined in December as demands for primary elections within the party organization in Istanbul municipality increases.
In relation to Istanbul municipality, CHP Deputy Chair Oğuz Kaan Salıcı said on Saturday that the party has set their eyes on Istanbul, to break the decades-old rule of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in the city.
Last week, the CHP's former presidential candidate, Muharrem İnce, who is regarded as the leader of the dissidents within the party, stressed that he is ready to be the party's Istanbul mayor candidate with the condition of holding a primary election.
His name also has been circulating in the media for some time now as a possible candidate for Istanbul mayor and some surveys revealed that İnce is the first preference of the party's organization.
The CHP grappled with a massive defeat in the June 24 elections by only gaining 22.6 percent of votes, a lower level of support compared to previous elections. The intraparty criticism sparked by the gap between the votes cast for CHP's former presidential candidate Muharrem İnce and the party became apparent following the last elections.
Dissidents called on the incumbent party Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, whom they see as responsible for the repeated election failures, to step down and started a petition to convene an extraordinary convention.
Yet, the dissidents, led by İnce, ultimately failed to reach the necessary quorum and faced harsh consequences including referrals to the disciplinary board from the party's head office.