The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) faces more scrutiny over a shady 2023 election while Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the new chair of the party, seeks to assemble a new administration. Meanwhile, a dispute between new and former leaders resurfaced on Tuesday over a parliamentary group meeting.
The Chief Prosecutor’s Office in Istanbul announced that it had asked relevant authorities to share findings regarding the delegates who voted in the 2023 election that brought Özgür Özel to power in Türkiye’s oldest party. The election was the subject of an investigation over allegations of vote-buying in favor of Özel. Last month, a court looking into the matter ordered the reinstatement of Özel’s predecessor, Kılıçdaroğlu, ruling for absolute nullification of the Özel administration. The office said reports on delegates and their next of kin would be requested from the Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK) and cash flow in their bank accounts would also be investigated.
On Tuesday, two individuals were also summoned to testify in the case. They were identified as Özkan Yalım and Turgut Koç. Yalım, the former mayor of the western province of Uşak, was recently arrested on charges of corruption. Collaborating with authorities, Yalım has confessed to secretly funding the Özel administration and bribing delegates to vote for Özel in the 2023 election. Koç is a businessman who was arrested in a separate case regarding drugs and prostitution and allegedly has links to Veli Ağbaba, a CHP lawmaker for the Malatya constituency. Koç has already admitted that he paid cash to delegates to collect votes for Özel.
Also on Tuesday, the Kılıçdaroğlu administration announced that it did not request permission for holding a parliamentary group meeting. The parliamentary group meetings are closely watched events for a party’s supporters as the party chairs make lengthy speeches over a diverse array of matters. Özgür Özel was appointed as CHP’s parliamentary group chair after Kılıçdaroğlu took the helm. The Özel and Kılıçdaroğlu camps reportedly bickered over who’d address the meeting while Özel’s associates in the party told media that it would be “business as usual.”
In his address to the parliamentary group meeting not attended by pro-Kılıçdaroğlu lawmakers, Özel vowed to fight to take back his seat. His speech, usually broadcast live by news stations, was not broadcast live this time, while Halk TV, a pro-Özel station, referred to him as “CHP leader,” stopping short of calling him CHP chairman.
Meanwhile, Kılıçdaroğlu's CHP unveiled the new Central Administrative Committee of the party later on Tuesday. The committee was comprised of 19 people, all of whom loyal to the former chair. Among them were Berhan Şimşek, a lawmaker who was expelled from the party last year when he challenged Özel in an earlier intra-party election.
