The far-right Good Party's (İP) local organization in northwestern Turkey's Yalova resigned Monday. Mehmet Çam, chair of İP Yalova provincial organization, and board members announced their decision in a statement.
In the statement, Çam said the board had made the decision before the March 31 local elections. "Since my appointment as İP's provincial organization chairman, I have gone through a tough time because of my philosophical differences with the general organization." Due to these differences, Çam said, he and the board members resigned on March 27 and communicated their decision with the party headquarters. "Since we have candidates in some districts, we delayed our resignations in order not to leave our organizations in a difficult situation," said Çam and added that he and board members officially resigned as of yesterday.
In the March 31 municipal elections, İP candidates lost in all 22 provinces they entered on their own against the People's Alliance, formed by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). İP received around 7.45 percent of the votes nationwide and finished third, far behind the MHP, its ideological rival. While the MHP won in 156 municipalities with a 7.31 percent share of votes, the İP only managed to win 25 local municipalities. Ümit Özdağ, one of İP's founding members, resigned shortly after the party's failure in the local elections. The party is an offshoot of the nationalist MHP. It was formed when a group of MHP members split from the party due to MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli's decision to cooperate with the AK Party.
Having failed to dislodge Bahçeli in a heated judicial process, MHP dissidents, under the leadership of Meral Akşener, first created a splinter movement within the party. The dissidents then left the party in 2016 and established the İP in October 2017.
