Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA) and Future Party (GP) lawmakers are preparing to leave the alliance headed by the Republican People's Party (CHP), under whose lists they entered Parliament before the oath-taking ceremony.
GP Deputy Chair Selçuk Özdağ, who was elected from Muğla province under the CHP list, said Wednesday at Parliament in Ankara: “We, with 10 of our deputies, have submitted our resignation petitions to the CHP. We have also given them to the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye. We will take the oath with our own party at the swearing-in ceremony."
He said that his party had to prepare for local elections next year.
Mehmet Emin Ekmen, deputy chair of the DEVA and CHP’s Mersin lawmaker, similarly said: “There is no need to resign. The Election Law allows entering the CHP lists with the DEVA Party identity. We have never left the DEVA Party.”
He elaborated the process is not a resignation but a procedure.
The smaller partners of the CHP-led six-party opposition coalition managed to get almost 40 lawmakers by entering the parliamentary elections under CHP lists.
The DEVA Party, which entered the elections from the CHP lists, won 15, the GP and Felicity Party (SP) 10 each, and the Democrat Party three deputies. In other words, after the opening of Parliament, 38 deputies will return to their parties from the CHP from which they were elected.
Thereby, the number of CHP lawmakers decreased to 129 this year from 169 in 2018.
Türkiye went to the polls on Sunday for a presidential runoff election after no candidate secured over 50% of the vote needed for an outright victory in the first round on May 14.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan won with over 52% of the vote, while opposition candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu received over 47%.
Erdoğan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and its allies have a majority, with 323 of the 600 seats in Parliament.
Some 360 seats would be needed to call a referendum and 400 to make constitutional changes. The president can still pass some legislative changes by presidential decree, though, under his powers as executive president since 2018.
The AK Party has the most seats with 268. The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) won 50 seats, while the New Welfare Party (YRP) has five.
The second largest opposition party after the CHP the pro-PKK Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), which ran under the sister Green Left Party (YSP) because of a legal case, lost six seats and has now 61 in the new Parliament.
The new lawmakers are expected to be sworn in on Friday. A new Cabinet has not yet been appointed.
