With Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) preparing for its ordinary party congress on Jan. 15-16 and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) refraining from holding a party congress anytime soon, both parties are displaying an unwillingness to hold elections for the chairmanship position due to repeated election failures. Sources close to the CHP say that with the candidates opposing current party leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu failing to collect enough signatures to hold an extraordinary congress, the party administration is relieved; moreover, adjustments will be made to the party's provincial organizations in an effort to prevent any changes to the chairmanship position during the upcoming congress. The MHP administration is also insisting on holding the ordinary congress in 2018 and the current MHP chairman Devlet Bahçeli has recently vowed to keep his position.
The CHP aims to finalize its provincial congresses by the ordinary party congress and has also made adjustments in its provincial organizations to make it difficult for candidates, such as Yalova deputy Muharrem İnce and former deputies Umut Oran and Mustafa Balbay, hoping to challenge Kılıçdaroğlu. Though it is expected that there will be multiple candidates for the chairmanship position, the predicted delegation support doesn't look too promising for the candidates seeking to dethrone Kılıçdaroğlu. According to CHP regulations, one must achieve a minimum of 120 signatures from the delegation and then must submit those signatures to the Council Presidency. However, CHP sources have reported that neither Oran nor Balbay would obtain enough signatures while only İnce has a slight chance against Kılıçdaroğlu. Furthermore, it has also been indicated that there have been solid changes to provincial administrations and delegations that increases the likelihood of Kılıçdaroğlu being the only candidate during the congress.
As the CHP continues its efforts to limit the candidates' likelihood of challenging the chairmanship position, MHP's Bahçeli not only vowed to keep his position but also accused former MHP deputy Meral Akşener for having ties to the Gülen Movement.
