Two years after an unprecedented success in local elections, the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) is challenged by an internal split. Media reports say infighting between those loyal to the current administration and those acting with former Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu may split the party. A report by the Sabah newspaper indicates that incumbent Chair Özgür Özel and his close associate, former Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu, may found a new party.
Imamoğlu was arrested last year on charges of corruption, shortly before he was declared the future presidential candidate of Türkiye’s oldest party. Özel long counted on him as a contender against incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the 2028 vote, but his imprisonment and annulment of his diploma (a requirement to contest in elections) hindered those plans. Moreover, serious allegations of corruption involving Imamoğlu as well as other CHP mayors gave rise to the dissent in the party, urging the Özel administration to “come clean.”
Another challenge for the CHP is a trial on vote-buying allegations regarding the intra-party election in 2023 that brought Özel to power. A recent hearing on the trial has been postponed to May 6. In the trial, Özel and his associates are accused of buying votes of delegates to oust Kılıçdaroğlu. The court may hand down a verdict of “absolute nullification” of the Özel administrationö and if it happens, a trustee will be appointed to run the party, dimming the hopes of winning any future election.
The report by Sabah says Özel’s opponents within the party mobilized amid rumors of “nullification” and were holding frequent meetings with Kılıçdaroğlu, in a bid to convince him to return to his former post, this time as a trustee. In this scenario, Özel and Imamoğlu will join a new party that will be founded by their supporters, the report said. A dissident of Özel speaking anonymously to the newspaper said the number of CHP lawmakers to join the new party would be “limited,” citing that most incumbent lawmakers owed their seats to Kılıçdaroğlu and most felt respect and gratitude to the former chair.
They said up to 40 names may switch to the new party, and Kılıçdaroğlu would still have at least 100 lawmakers loyal to him in this scenario. The CHP currently has 138 seats in Parliament. Another senior figure in the party told Sabah that Kılıçdaroğlu still had clout in the party despite “attempts by armies of social media trolls to portray otherwise.”
“The CHP needs to purge itself (of corruption),” the source said.
