A court in Ankara adjourned a key trial over annulment of a 2023 election that brought Turkish main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Özgür Özel to power in the country’s oldest party. The plaintiffs, who are former members of the party, have accused a close circle of Özel of buying votes of delegates in the intraparty election that ended the lengthy reign of Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. The next hearing is scheduled for Oct. 24.
Former members of the CHP are plaintiffs in the case where Kılıçdaroğlu is defined as a victim of alleged fraud in the November 2023 election. The lawsuit calls for annulment of both that election and an April 2025 election at the party that cemented Özel's rule.
It is the most high-profile lawsuit the party, whose mayors have been detained on corruption charges in recent months, is facing. Allegations are brought forward by Lütfü Savaş, former mayor of the southern province of Hatay for the CHP and several delegates who voted in the 2023 election. They accuse several suspects, including former Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu, the future presidential candidate of the CHP, of offering cash and other incentives to delegates to sway the vote in favor of Özel.
The CHP held a major rally a day earlier at Anadolu Square in Ankara, where Özel again implied that they would defy any ruling on Monday. But the party was apparently hoping for an adjournment. Özel was at a meeting with his party's senior cadres at the headquarters of the CHP as the hearing began, while a lawyer for the party told reporters after the hearing that they were expecting a delay. The CHP dispatched an army of lawyers to the courthouse and the hearing began after a brief scuffle between lawyers for the plaintiffs and the CHP administration.
Judges ruled in favor of the request for the names of all delegates who voted and those who did not vote despite their eligibility in the November 2023 election, as well as for an election for the party's Istanbul chair. Özgür Çelik, who was elected as Istanbul around the same time as his namesake, was recently suspended from duty in a similar trial over alleged vote-buying.
At Monday's hearing, lawyers for plaintiffs called on the court to dismiss pleas by CHP objecting to the case on the grounds of the court's jurisdiction and insisted that the case was a legal dispute rather than a matter that should be resolved by the election board overseeing such elections. Lawyers told the court that the issue at hand was something that took place beyond elections, citing allegations of a "cash-for-vote" scheme voiced by plaintiffs. The plaintiffs' lawyers also urged the judges to dismiss CHP's plea for the application of the statute of limitations in the case. They stated that the evidence of the change in delegates' opinion in favor of Özel was clear, and the suspects in the case were involved in criminal activities that contravened the law of political parties. They reasoned that the wrongdoings in the election should justify the absolute nullification of the election. In conclusion, plaintiff lawyers appealed to the court to reinstate Kılıçdaroğlu and his party assembly members to their jobs temporarily until a final verdict on the case.
The Özel administration believes the trial is a plot by the government to damage the party, while supporters of Kılıçdaroğlu say Özel should acquit himself before the court. Throughout the legal process, Kılıçdaroğlu rarely broke his silence, though he was vocal in other matters regarding his party. On Monday, he was at his home in Ankara while a phalanx of journalists waited for a comment from the CHP stalwart in vain outside.
The first hearing in the case was held on April 17. For the plaintiffs, it is simply an intraparty matter. Savaş told the Sabah newspaper on Sunday that Özel was long branded a “shady” chair due to claims of irregularities in the 2023 election. “I filed the lawsuit so that everything will be brought to the fore and the party would be acquitted of any wrongdoing. I applied to the law like a patient would apply to a doctor. If the court rules there was no wrongdoing, I’d be pleased. I’d be pleased too if the court rules otherwise because our party would eventually be cleared of those involved in wrongdoing,” Savaş said. “This is a case of the CHP, the people of the CHP. Nobody else should be involved and we should wait and see how justice will prevail,” he said.
