Good Party (IP) Chairperson Meral Akşener on Monday announced that she will not be a candidate for the leadership of the party at the IP’s upcoming extraordinary congress later this month on April 27.
In a written statement, Akşener underlined that she prioritized Türkiye’s needs in her 30-year political career and did not shy from taking responsibility or paying the price when necessary.
Reminding that the IP entered the recent March 31 local elections on its own and without being part of an alliance as decided by the party’s authorized boards, Akşener said: "The reason why we took this decision was to take our party out of the orbit of political poles that are becoming increasingly entrenched in Türkiye and to provide our people with a new choice that would save them from an uncompetitive politics of two choices. It was to take a principled step to end the polarized atmosphere whose societal, political and institutional harms we all experienced."
She continued to say that she was prepared to bear the brunt of this decision: "Of course, I was well aware of the risk of a negative election outcome that we could potentially receive, and thus the need to pay a price. For this reason, I emphasized at every opportunity throughout the process that I was responsible for the results. I personally am satisfied with the price we and I paid within the scope of the election results."
Unofficial results show IP won around 3.7% of the vote across Türkiye, right behind the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Akşener was once a member of, along with founding cadres of the IP. The IP was only a few points ahead of the Victory Party (ZP), another party founded by former MHP members.
"Within this scope, I declare that I will not be a candidate for chairpersonship at the extraordinary congress during which we will evaluate the elections and will determine our course toward 2028," she highlighted.
Akşener’s announcement comes days after the party met with party members and deputies in a 2.5-hour meeting to discuss the election results.
Being asked whether he would be a candidate at the congress, IP migration policies head Mehmet Tolga Akın told reporters that he would be "part of the process."
On the other side, IP Group Deputy Chairperson Dursun Müsavat Dervişoğlu also announced his candidacy for the congress.
"At such a critical threshold it is not possible for me to stay indifferent to the developments and the responsibilities put on us by history," Dervişoğlu said on social media.
"To ensure that the process is carried out in accordance with our traditions, we will first visit our founding leader and family elder, Ms. Meral Akşener, who has made great efforts to bring our party to this day by making great efforts since the day it was founded, and receive her blessings," he added.
IP Group Chairperson Koray Aydın also announced his candidacy on Monday.
Akşener’s decision echoes the Republican People’s Party's (CHP) tumultuous post-election period after its leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu lost to incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the presidential election. The CHP held an extraordinary intraparty election last November, something that cost Kılıçdaroğlu his seat. Like Kılıçdaroğlu, who she once endorsed, Akşener’s political fate hangs in balance after the election results. She was already under fire by her dissidents within the party for her insistence on fielding the party’s own candidates instead of supporting stronger contenders from other parties, namely, the CHP.
The IP has been grappling with back-to-back scandals, including infighting since the six-party opposition bloc lost to the People’s Alliance in presidential and parliamentary elections. The chaos worsened after Akşener pulled her party out of the alliance, blaming the CHP for poor showing in legislative polls, and officially rejected CHP’s offer to team up again for the mayoral vote.
Akşener and her close circle’s insistence on competing alone has been pushing deputies, including founding members, away in droves, who believe the IP had very little chance to haul in any significant constituencies by itself and instead endorse the CHP’s Istanbul and Ankara Mayors Ekrem Imamoğlu and Mansur Yavaş, two former favorites of Akşener.