The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) continues to undermine its credibility, and incumbent CHP Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu is fixated on retaining his post, a former deputy chairman said on Tuesday.
Öztürk Yılmaz, who was stripped of his duty in the party by Kılıçdaroğlu, said there is no opposition in the country, and Kılıçdaroğlu is afraid of losing his seat. Öztürk's remarks came via his Twitter account. "There is no convincing opposition. Those who fear losing their seats cannot tell others to resign," he said.
The main opposition party has been reeling from intraparty debates as hundreds of delegates have been waging a battle against the party's administration for some time. Dissidents have been blaming Kılıçdaroğlu, who has led the party since 2011, for the nine failures in previous elections and have called for a change in administration.
The dissidents started the process of collecting signatures for a convention on July 16 following the failure in the June 24 elections; however, the party's administration announced that the dissidents fell short of enough signatures for the emergency convention.
Having failed to make the party's administration gather an emergency convention, the dissidents recently decided to initiate another process through assembling signatures for a bylaws convention.
CHP's intraparty opposition met in Ankara on Sunday to discuss a road map and determine further moves against the party's leadership.
The dissidents are planning to call for a convention to change the party's bylaws. To convene the convention for bylaws, 249 signatures from the delegates need to be collected.
After the meeting, Gaye Usluer, a prominent figure in the dissident faction, stated: "Our collected 630 signatures were reduced to fewer than 600. Delegates who signed the petition are still keeping their stance. Delegates want the administration to take action."