Turkish prosecutors are seeking up to three-year prison sentences for a total of 12 suspects, including Istanbul’s ousted Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu, in an ongoing trial against their Republican People's Party (CHP) over alleged vote buying in a 2023 ordinary congress.
Imamoğlu and 11 others, including CHP’s Izmir Mayor Cemil Tugay, are charged with “rigging votes” in the party’s intra-election, the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office in the capital Ankara said after completing its investigation into allegations of corruption in the CHP.
Other CHP figures facing a prison sentence and a ban on politics for the duration of their sentence include CHP’s former mayor of Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district, Rıza Akpolat, Bursa’s Osmangazi district Mayor Erkan Aydın, as well as several district mayors in Istanbul.
Akpolat was suspended from duty by the Interior Ministry back in January as part of the investigation, which was launched following a lawsuit filed by a former CHP mayor and several other delegates late last year.
The lawsuit seeks to cancel the party’s 38th Ordinary Congress held on Nov. 4-5, 2023, in which Chairperson Özgür Özel allegedly “bought” supporters to oust Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, his predecessor, in an intraparty election held at the congress.
It also asks to suspend all CHP officials linked to the congress. If the court rules to annul the congress that elected Özel as CHP chair, a trustee would be assigned to administer Türkiye’s oldest political party, who would then call for an extraordinary congress within 45 days.
The CHP, in its response to the court last month, requested the case’s dismissal, citing the provisions of the legislation that the annulment of a decision taken at the congress could be requested within a maximum of three months from the date of the decision.
Several eyewitnesses testified in court about the allegations that delegates were made to vote in exchange for money at the said congress.
Ankara prosecutors have said the bribery claims are based on the legal complaints of CHP delegates who told investigators that they were offered bribes ranging from cash and houses to prominent jobs in municipalities the party runs.
Prosecutors took the testimonies of some 86 people, including Imamoğlu, who is under arrest and suspended from duty.
Imamoğlu is also accused of orchestrating the scheme to sway at least 150 delegates against Kılıçdaroğlu.
In the first round of the said election, Özel received 682 votes and Kılıçdaroğlu 664 votes; since neither candidate received the support of a simple majority (684) based on the total number of delegates, a rerun was held.
In the special second round, Özel was elected as the eighth chair of the CHP with 812 votes against Kılıçdaroğlu, who received 536 votes.
