Almost one month after the opposition suffered another defeat against incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, its main party looks to replace its leader. Heads of Republican People’s Party (CHP) branches in 81 provinces issued a joint declaration on Thursday, after a meeting with party leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu on Wednesday. They highlighted a “change” in the party, “independent of persons,” stopping short of a call to replace Kılıçdaroğlu, who is held responsible for the six-party opposition bloc’s loss to Erdoğan in the May 28 runoff.
Canan Kaftancıoğlu, head of CHP in Istanbul, Türkiye’s most populated city, shared the declaration on social media. The declaration noted that local leaders of CHP in all provinces held meetings to analyze the election results and “learn lessons,” which culminated in a meeting with Kılıçdaroğlu. Wednesday’s meeting lasted more than eight hours and came at a time of a growing number of calls to Kılıçdaroğlu to step down. Türkiye’s oldest party challenged Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party (AK Party) for almost three decades but always succumbed to defeat, except in occasional municipal elections.
Kılıçdaroğlu was nominated by the six-party opposition bloc composed of parties with vastly different political views. His candidacy was kept under wraps for months and the Good Party (IP) initially objected to his nomination, before being convinced to return to the bloc. Kılıçdaroğlu was also endorsed by the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), which is not part of the bloc, along with several smaller parties, credited with boosting his vote, as high as 47.8%, compared to Erdoğan’s 52.18% in the runoff, the first runoff in the electoral history of Erdoğan.
The declaration on Thursday noted that they heeded the public criticism and demands from CHP. “Change is a magic word but it is ideas and principles that will ensure a steady change rather than people. It is obvious that calls for change based on a person-oriented ‘savior’ rhetoric, calls that do not include addressing structural and functional shortcomings will not produce healthy results. Nobody including our chairperson is exempt from criticism and we accept constructive criticism,” the declaration said. “We, provincial chairs, certainly support a change. CHP has cadres that will continue our journey to the new centenary of the Republic of Türkiye and they are ready to take action for this cause. With this viewpoint, we actively start the convention process,” the declaration said. The conventions bring together members of the party all across the country and are usually held in each province, before a general, national convention where a chairperson election is held.
Around the same time the declaration was announced, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu echoed a similar sentiment, with more blunt words, though. The mayor, viewed as a potential contender to unseat Kılıçdaroğlu, said they had to “rebuild the opposition and adopt a winning model.”
Speaking at a news conference in Istanbul where he summed up his four years as mayor, Imamoğlu said the public expects the opposition “to change.” “We have to implement the change,” Imamoğlu, who has said earlier that it was “wrong” to expect different results by doing the same thing, in a veiled criticism of CHP’s defeat.
Kılıçdaroğlu was portrayed as the strongest contender against Erdoğan, after a 2018 defeat, the latest in his tenure that began in 2010 when the CHP nominated Muharrem Ince. Yet, the bookish former bureaucrat failed to woo voters outside the strongholds of his party, where he managed to gain the upper hand in provinces with strong support for the HDP.
Imamoğlu said that the opposition bloc lost both legislative and presidential elections “at a time when the government was at the weakest point in its 21 years.” “We could not respond to people’s call for change, we could not be a remedy for them. We failed to present an environment of confidence and hope, unfortunately,” he acknowledged. He added that the current outlook of the opposition would be a challenge for the 2024 local elections. “We have to get the opposition out of this spot. This depends on the CHP’s resolved will for change,” he added.
The mayor also reiterated that he was willing to be “a determined part” of responsibility to achieve this ambition, hinting that he may run in the race for CHP chair.
