More than 156,000 in Turkey have applied to be Republican People's Party (CHP) members through the country's online membership system over the past seven years and out of that total, 62,265 were registered as permanent members. With these new additions, as of Feb. 26, 2021, the number of members of the CHP has reached 1,252,122, while Istanbul, Izmir and Ankara have become the provinces with the highest number of members.

According to information received by Anadolu Agency (AA), the party started to receive electronic membership applications following the amendment made in the statute after the decision of the 18th Extraordinary Congress. The acceptance of applicants applying online is decided by the Central Executive Board. Since July 8, 2014, 156,140 people have applied for membership to the CHP through the online membership system, and 62,265 of them were permanently registered as members. For about 70,000 of the applicants, the membership process is still ongoing, mostly due to missing documents. The number of those who applied for the membership and yet lost their membership due to various reasons has reached 16,414.

Ankara's Çankaya has most CHP members

According to the figures announced by the Supreme Court of Appeals Prosecutor’s Office, the number of CHP members currently stands at 1,252,122 after the removal of names for reasons such as death or resignation. In terms of the distribution of members by province, Istanbul ranked first with 277,000 members, followed by Izmir with 161,000 members.

The CHP has 83,000 members in Ankara, 45,000 in Adana, 42,000 in Mersin, 35,000 in Muğla, 35,000 in Aydın, 31,000 in Hatay and 31,000 in Bursa.

The provinces with the least registered members were Bayburt with 470, followed by Siirt with 602 members, Iğdır with 751, Kilis with 868 and Çankırı with 978.

The highest number of CHP members on the basis of districts was Ankara's central Çankaya district with 22,000. Çankaya was followed by Izmir's Buca with 19,000, Adana's Seyhan with 18,000, Ankara's Mamak with 17,000, Kartal in Istanbul with 16,000 and Bornova district of Izmir with 15,500 members.

The CHP, which has less than 50 members in 43 of the 973 districts across the country, has two members registered in Siirt’s Tillo, seven in Sivas’s Doğanşar, 10 in Çankırı’s Yapraklı, 12 in Konya’s Yalıhüyük and 19 members in Erzurum’s Uzundere.

The number of districts with 50 and more members of the CHP is 130. The number of districts with 100 and more members is 407. The number of districts with 500 and more members is 131. The number of districts with 1,000 and more members is 193. The number of districts with 5,000 and more members is 48, and the number of districts with over 10,000 members was recorded as 21.