Ten suspects, including the Republican People's Party’s (CHP) Istanbul Provincial Chair Özgür Çelik, were summoned on Tuesday to testify as part of an ongoing investigation into allegations of election fraud during the party’s Istanbul provincial congress.
The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office is investigating suspected violations of the Political Parties Law and alleged fraudulent conduct during the CHP’s internal election process. The allegations involve claims of irregularities carried out in exchange for personal or political benefits.
The investigation is ongoing and no charges have been filed yet but the inclusion of Çelik, a high-profile CHP official, has drawn public and political attention to the case.
The CHP has not yet issued a formal response to the summon or the investigation.
Türkiye’s oldest party has been entangled in several investigations into alleged fraud and corruption among its ranks since last year.
In a separate case, Turkish prosecutors are investigating claims of bribery in elections at the party’s 2023 ordinary congress, in which Chair Özgür Özel allegedly “bought” supporters to oust Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, his predecessor.
The investigation was launched following a lawsuit by a former CHP mayor and several other delegates late last year, asking to cancel the said congress and suspend all CHP officials linked to it.
If the court, which adjourned the next hearing to September earlier this month, rules to annul the congress that elected Özel as CHP chair, a trustee would be assigned to administer CHP, who would then call for an extraordinary congress within 45 days.
Several eyewitnesses testified in court about the allegations that delegates were made to vote in exchange for money at the said congress.
A total of 12 suspects, including Istanbul’s ousted Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu, are facing up to three years in prison on charges of “rigging votes.”
Imamoğlu, arrested in March on several different charges ranging from corruption to diploma forgery, is also accused of orchestrating the scheme to sway at least 150 delegates against Kılıçdaroğlu.
