Türkiye’s opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has threatened to kick out members of his Republican People's Party (CHP) if they were to “speak out against” the party ahead of the upcoming local elections in March 2024.
“There can be differences of opinion in the CHP but after we hold our congress and complete the election, if anyone disparages or criticizes the party on live television, I will discharge them,” Kılıçdaroğlu told reporters Sunday following a regional conference in the northwestern Kocaeli province.
He also promised overhauls to the party charter, solutions to “all functions of CHP that have been disrupted so far” and to do away with the delegate system, in which members choose over 1,300 delegates at provincial and district levels to ultimately elect the party chair at the major congress.
“If a district or province representative has seen their votes dwindle, they will have to be replaced,” Kılıçdaroğlu said while assuring the chairs of the top five provinces that cultivated the highest voter support would be guaranteed seats at the party council.
The CHP, freefalling into a growing schism since the opposition suffered another defeat in May’s national elections, is gearing up to elect a new chair, an executive council and a high disciplinary board at its 57th congress on Nov. 4-5.
A new leadership in CHP, which would replace Kılıçdaroğlu’s 13-year reign, could energize opposition masses in time for mayoral polls but the party is still looking at grim odds as back-to-back election losses culminate in frustration among its members and supporter base alike.
Kılıçdaroğlu himself has been endlessly criticized for the opposition’s failure and ignoring insistent calls for his resignation.
Unrest has snowballed into an intraparty conflict between his supporters and faultfinders locked in a power struggle over CHP leadership, as even Kılıçdaroğlu’s trusted allies like Ekrem Imamoğlu, who became Istanbul mayor in a surprise 2019 win, came out of the woodwork demanding accountability.
Özgür Özel, Örsan Kunter Öymen and Ünal Karahasan have so far challenged Kılıçdaroğlu. A candidate needs approval signatures of at least 5% of all elected delegates, meaning 69 members, to be able to officially run for CHP chairpersonship.
Kılıçdaroğlu, who is yet to announce his bid formally, is likely to be nominated by delegates, while Özel is said to be the only other candidate close to achieving the required number.
“It would be a political blindness and exact a heavy toll to overlook the fact that there is an emotional disconnect in voters and that is all we object to,” Özel said Sunday hours after Kılıçdaroğlu’s speech.
Lamenting a “resentment” within the CHP over the election of 39 parliamentary candidates from other parties CHP aligned with in May, Özel said: “I can see that the CHP’s organization can be revived and bolstered by a good sense of management and it’s only possible if members and supporters alike put a stop to the direction the CHP is headed.”
Separately on Monday, he promised to “embrace” those Kılıçdaroğlu threatened to sack.
“For one thing, delegates chosen by CHP members will decide who will be the chairperson. Doing politics behind that chair is necessitated by party ethics but I promise to not kick them out to the curb but welcome them into their home after the congress,” Özel said.
Öymen, meanwhile, decried a “chronic defeat” streak at CHP under Kılıçdaroğlu’s reign.
“The CHP has lost all 12 elections it competed in the past 13 years. We’re happy to win a municipal election in Istanbul and Ankara at this point, which is a relative success but it’s still unacceptable to become so accustomed to defeat,” he said.
Kılıçdaroğlu’s vocal dissidents won the Istanbul office in a provincial congress on Oct. 8 in a sign the upcoming congress could see a similar outcome but pundits say the scales are still in Kılıçdaroğlu’s favor.
On March 31, 2024, some 64 million eligible voters are due to vote for new mayors and other office-holders in 81 provinces and recouping in time is vital for the CHP’s chances of keeping top cities – Istanbul, Ankara and even historical stronghold Izmir – in which it currently governs some 26 million of the Turkish population.
After May, the party lost its biggest partner in its six-party coalition the Good Party (IP), and its unexpected friend Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), whose endorsement in 2019 helped put CHP mayors in Istanbul and Ankara for the first time in 25 years since Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AK Party) has been in power.
IP and the HDP, widely condemned for alleged links to the PKK terrorist group, have announced plans to compete with their own mayoral candidates.
The CHP and IP have already clashed over ideological differences, and IP leader Meral Akşener has opposed Kılıçdaroğlu’s nomination from the get-go, even temporarily walking out of the bloc in an outburst that eroded her favor in public before the polls.
She has since renounced the Nation Alliance but also teased the possibility of another electoral “cooperation.”
Whether leadership is renewed or not, critics say the CHP’s odds are low without the HDP’s endorsement and because of the unpopularity of both Kılıçdaroğlu and Akşener.
