The eight-hour long party assembly of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), which convened to evaluate the results of the June 24 presidential elections, has yet again increased intraparty debates.
Muharrem İnce, the party's presidential candidate in the recent elections, lashed out at remarks made by incumbent chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu about İnce and the party administration's decision not to invite him to the meeting.
Commenting on the recent row with İnce, Kılıçdaroğlu stated in the meeting on Aug. 29 that he initially thought İnce would become the next chairman of the party after him due to his nomination as the party's presidential candidate.
"However, the things he did after the election did not give me any confidence. If he becomes the chairman of the party, the party will dissolve within a week." Kılıçdaroğlu said.
In response, İnce, who the dissidents consider a natural leader of the party, slammed Kılıçdaroğlu via his official Twitter account yesterday by saying: "[The] Party Assembly gathered to evaluate election results 66 days after the elections. Not inviting the presidential candidate of the party to the meeting is a problem. Telling lies during the meeting is also a problem." İnce added that Kılıçdaroğlu is clinging desperately to his seat by telling lies.
In the meeting, the reasons why the party acquired 22.6 percent of votes, a lower level of support compared to previous elections, was discussed. Tensions were reportedly apparent with debates between the party administration and intraparty dissidents. During the meeting, a report prepared by academics from Middle East Technical University (METU) on the reasons for the failure in the July 24 elections was presented. According to the three-hour long presentation, votes in all the major metropolitan cities where CHP attracts a majority of votes decreased considerably.
The report underlined that the CHP lost 0.5 percent of votes to the pro-PKK Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) and 2.7 percent of its votes to the right-wing Good Party (İP). The report also stated that those who voted for the HDP and the IP supported Ince in the presidential elections.
The party has struggled with a divisive intraparty debate since the July 24 elections. The gap between the votes for İnce and the CHP sparked debates within the party as some party members and supporters called on Kılıçdaroğlu to step down. Dissidents have been blaming the incumbent party leader, who has led the party since 2011, for the nine consecutive failures in previous elections.
The dissidents started the process of collecting signatures for a convention on July 16 to challenge incumbent Kılıçdaroğlu, calling for a change in the administration. Yet the collected signatures for the convention failed to reach a quorum. Since then, heated debates have not quieted down with the administration's efforts to tame the dissidents, who constantly protest the decision.
Most recently, the dissidents announced that they would collect signatures to call for bylaw change if the administration insists on not holding an extraordinary convention.
