No election at MHP convention on July 10, election board says

Following the latest legal decisions, confusion and uncertainty in the nationalist MHP continue at full tilt, as a provincial election board declared that there cannot be any election at the emergency convention on July 10 due to an interim injunction imposed last week on the June 19 convention



Following the imposition by an Ankara civil court of an interim injunction on the June 19 emergency convention held by Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) dissidents, Çankaya provincial election board declared Monday that the MHP party's convention on July 10 cannot elect a chairperson.The decision came after an injunction rule was imposed on Friday. "The Ankara civil court has issued an injunction on changes and rulings that were taken at the convention on June 19," Yücel Bulut, a lawyer for the MHP administration, told reporters on Friday.The intra-party opposition in the MHP held an emergency convention on June 19 that was not sanctioned by the party administration, during which they changed party bylaws to allow the election of a chairman at emergency conventions, and were planning to elect a chairman at the July 10 convention.The dissidents have appealed the interim injunction ruling, claiming that the June 19 emergency convention was fully legal. "The MHP held a lawful emergency convention," Musavat Dervişoğlu, a leader among the MHP dissidents, said in response the injunction decision.According to sources close to the MHP, under these circumstances MHP Chairman Devlet Bahçeli may postpone the July 10 convention. As the dissidents are now unable to elect a chairman on July 10 and the bylaws changed on June 19 imposed an injunction, Bahçeli has been strengthened against the dissidents.Even though the dissidents gathered on June 19 with the sole intention to change the party regulations that prohibit the election of a chairman at emergency conventions, 13 other articles were changed. Sinan Oğan and Koray Aydın, two of the dissidents, openly slammed Meral Akşener for secretly changing the other 13 articles, which according to them paved the way for the imposition of the injunction.Following the June 19 convention, Oğan and Aydın complained that Akşener had changed other party regulations without their knowledge. "Call it the disintegration [of the dissidents] or whatever you like, but if the party regulations are to be changed, all of the changes should be brought and negotiated together," Oğan said, adding that he was not aware of the other changes made to the party regulations. Aydın also said he did not see any of the changes. "We thought only this one article would be changed," he said. "Meral Akşener's team is at it again. We could have contributed with our experience."