Two local courts decided on Friday to impose an interim injunction on the court ruling taken on April 7 in favor of compelling the Nationalist Movement Party to hold an extraordinary congress, and assigned three Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) members to lead the party to a congress.
MHP vice-chairman Oktay Öztürk announced the decision, which means no extraordinary congress will be held until the Supreme Court of Appeals will give their final ruling. Semih Yalçın, another MHP vice-chairman, welcomed the ruling and said it was appropriate. The MHP administration appealed the April 7 ruling at the Supreme Court of Appeals.
Dissident candidate Sinan Oğan said the decisions are unlawful, and the party administration is trying to disrupt the ongoing process by applying to courts that they find suitable. He said that trusttes and other prominent dissident figures will evaluate the process and give their decisions accordingly.
Local courts of peace in Tosya and Gemerek districts ruled for the suspension of decisions of trustees appointed to the party by Ankara 12th Court of Peace on April 7. The trustees were assigned to the party as the court decided that the party should hold an extraordinary congress allowing party regulations to be amended.
MHP dissidents have been very local after the Nov. 1 elections, in which the party barely passed the 10 percent national election threshold and lost half of its deputies compared to June 7 elections. Since then, Meral Akşener, Sinan Oğan and Koray Aydın have raised their voices against the party chairman Devlet Bahçeli, who ruled the party since 1997. They were later joined by vice chairman Ümit Özdağ.
Seeking an extraordinary congress to amend party regulations which do not allow extraordinary leadership congresses to be held, the trio collected 543 signatures out of MHP's total 1,242 delegates. This number is enough to call a congress and very close to the required 601 votes to change the regulations. The trio submitted the signatures to the party, however, the party administration refused to gather an extraordinary congress and forced the dissidents to take the matter before the court. The court last week decided to appoint trustees to the party, which decided to gather an extraordinary congress on May. 15.
