Amid a changing political landscape following the March 31 municipal elections, Temel Karamollaoğlu prepares to bid adieu to his position as chair of the opposition Saadet (Felicity) Party (SP).
The party announced earlier this week that an extraordinary congress would be held on June 30 to elect the successor of the 82-year-old leader.
The former mayor, who took the reins in the party in 2016, has cited health reasons for his decision to step down from his post in a statement last week. He said he would endorse any candidate to replace him in the upcoming election. He has also underlined that he would not quit politics.
He will be the third opposition leader to step down since last year’s general elections. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, head of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), was the first to go when he lost an intraparty election in November to Ozgür Özel. The extraordinary election was the result of a devastating defeat to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who led his ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) to successive victories in more than two decades. SP was a member of the “table for six” alliance of the opposition parties united against Erdoğan and the AK Party. Meral Akşener, head of Good Party (IP), another opposition bloc member, also stepped down from her post following another defeat for her party in the municipal elections.
The elections were also a challenge for the AK Party, which lost several strongholds to CHP and failed to take back the capital, Ankara, and commercial hub Istanbul from the opposition. But it also paved the way for a new era between the AK Party and the opposition. President Erdoğan termed it a “softening” of relations as he held a lengthy meeting with Özel last week in a rare conversation with the head of an opposition party.
SP won in one district and three towns in the municipal elections, securing eighth place in the list of parties with the highest number of mayoral and municipal assembly seats.
The party was founded by Necmettin Erbakan, the political mentor of President Erdoğan when the former’s Welfare Party (RP) faced a political ban. Though claiming to adhere to Erbakan’s National Vision ideology most closely, it lagged behind other parties in elections founded by former RP members, such as the AK Party and New Welfare Party (YRP) established by the late Erbakan’s son Fatih Erbakan.
