The main opposition New Party (YP) launched a new intra-party election process on Sunday, with all members eligible to vote in the election of district chairs. The first stage of the multi-week process replaced the “delegate” system, but it was not without a hitch. In one district, the vote was called off after supporters of candidates engaged in a brawl. Similar scenes unfolded in several other districts.
In the traditional system of Turkish politics, parties first pick delegates at the neighborhood level, and these delegates are the only eligible voters to pick their own candidates for district chairs. District delegates then vote for provincial chairs in turn. Speaking in the Karesi district of the western province of Balıkesir on Sunday, where he watched the voting, Party Chair Özgür Özel touted the election as “next-generation politics and direct democracy.” Özel founded YP in July after he was ousted from the Republican People’s Party (CHP) over allegations of vote-buying in a 2023 election in which he was elected to the CHP’s top office.
The YP is scheduled to hold district congresses and then provincial congresses to elect new chairs in those constituencies in October.
Yet, Özel’s “direct democracy” failed the test in Istanbul’s Esenyurt district. Supporters of two candidates for district chair engaged in an all-out brawl, alleging irregularities. When tensions further escalated, party officials decided to call off the voting due to security concerns.
In the Odunpazarı district of the central province of Eskişehir, supporters of one candidate objected to the vote count after the rival candidate won by a three-vote margin. Party members called for a recount, which was approved by the party’s supervisory board, but a brawl erupted between rival camps at the polling station, forcing authorities to call off the recount and refer the case to the party’s headquarters.
In Bursa’s Nilüfer district, party members protesting against both candidates scrawled the name of the party’s Bursa chair on ballots in an act of defiance.
In the Mezitli district of the southern province of Mersin, a man was arrested after firing into the air during a brawl between party supporters during the election.
