Tensions are running high in the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) ahead of a critical trial over alleged fraud in a 2023 intraparty election that brought current chair Özgür Özel to power. A few weeks before the trial over the “shady election,” members of Türkiye’s oldest party are engaged in a battle during the ongoing elections to elect new delegates for an upcoming congress of the party. It is mainly fought between loyalists of Özel and “old school” members of the party, not pleased with the changing dynamics after Özel’s election.
The CHP administration irked lifelong members of the party by ignoring the opinion of grassroots movements in the party while scheduling neighborhood delegate elections for August. The decision is viewed as an attempt to purge delegates loyal to Özel’s predecessor, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who earlier expressed readiness to take the reins in the party if Özel’s chairpersonship is annulled in the ongoing trial.
Since neighborhood delegate elections began, supporters of the Özel administration and cliques within the party came at odds in many places during the voting. In some cases, they engaged in fistfights, and in others, insults were hurled at each other. Last week, the party’s former chair for Tunceli, an eastern province where former chair Kılıçdaroğlu hails from, found himself in a brawl with his opponents during the delegate election. In Karşıyaka, a district of the CHP stronghold Izmir, party members also engaged in a quarrel. In the central district of Afyonkarahisar in western Türkiye, district chair Büşra Dişçioğlu claimed some party members assaulted her before announcing the election there was canceled upon instructions by the party’s headquarters. Another brawl erupted in front of the party’s offices in Afyonkarahisar between supporters of Dişçioğlu and those opposing the decision to scrap the election. Earlier this month, a party member suffered a brain haemorrhage and two others were detained after a violent brawl during delegate elections in Samsun’s Atakum district.
The delegate elections are essential for picking the voters for the next election of the party’s chairmanship. Although the turnout in the ongoing elections is not as high as expected, they are more well-publicized than earlier votes due to brawls and tensions. Some party sources claim the Özel administration imposes its will to sway the voters. In some places, party members complain of the anti-democratic stance of the administration by proposing unpopular candidates and exerting pressure for their election. Elsewhere, allegations of fraud and irregularities are prevalent.
