A court in the capital Ankara on Monday adjourned a hearing on allegations of vote-buying in a past election in main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) to Sept. 8. The decision is a temporary relief for party’s chair Özgür Özel whose associates are accused of manipulating and bribing delegates to vote for him in the intraparty election held in November 2023.
The trial is deepening the cracks between Özel and his predecessor Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu over the fate of the CHP, which threatens to push Türkiye’s oldest party into “ruin,” according to a former CHP lawmaker.
"The CHP’s reputation is at stake here and it’s the doing of Özel and Kılıçdaroğlu," Mehmet Sevigen, a prominent CHP politician who previously served as a minister and a lawmaker until his discharge in 2021, exclusively told Daily Sabah.
The CHP’s lawyers and lawyers for delegates who made corruption allegations were present at Monday’s anticipated hearing.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs told the hearing that the 2023 election should be nullified on the grounds that Ekrem Imamoğlu, who chaired the convention which included the vote, did not act neutrally, pointing out an earlier indictment and ruling to that extent. They said Imamoğlu coordinated “multiple crimes” to manipulate delegates to vote for Özel, citing investigations for more than 100 suspects, including nine lawmakers.
Lawyers said delegates eligible for voting were bribed before the election, while some delegates were promised employment in exchange for votes.
The CHP’s lawyers called on the court to rule for lack of jurisdiction, claiming criminal courts had no authority in examining and investigating intraparty elections. They also claimed that the CHP should benefit frthe om statute of limitations, citing that the lawsuit by plaintiffs was filed on a date exceeding the limitations.
The court decided to wait for the conclusion of the appeal for lack of jurisdiction to the judiciary authorities to proceed with the trial, before announcing the postponement and deciding to hear further objections to the lawsuit.
If the election result is canceled, the party leadership would almost certainly revert to Kılıçdaroğlu, who was ousted after losing the 2023 presidential race to incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, leaving the party in crisis.
Kılıçdaroğlu has already said he would be willing to take on the party leadership again if the court overturned the primary result, sparking an uproar within the CHP against the former chair.
Onur Yusuf Üregen, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, told reporters after the hearing that they would wait and see what would happen in the next hearing. “We expect a final verdict then. We are hoping that the party would get rid of corruption and this trial will reveal whether the CHP has corrupted people in its ranks,” he said.
Ali Mahir Başarır, deputy group chair of the CHP, told journalists after the hearing that they were assured that the trial would be concluded on Sept. 8, believing that it would be “thrown out by the court.”
He said they would not hand over the party to “anyone else,” referring to a possible scenario of the appointment of trustees to the party if the court rules in favor of the plaintiffs.
“If a respected elder wants to chair the party, he should rally the delegates on a neighborhood level and if delegates side with him, he can run for (an intraparty election),” Başarır said, in reference to Kılıçdaroğlu’s remarks where he implied to take over the party if Özel’s election rendered null and void by the court.
According to Sevigen, Özel and Kılıçdaroğlu must put aside their differences and join forces if they want to keep the party running.
“It should not be a matter of ‘I won,’ ‘You won.’ The matter should not be left to a trial,” Sevigen said, arguing that the court process will hurt the CHP the more it goes on.
He believes the two can benefit from a mediator whom everyone can trust.
“There is no point in being arrogant or proud here. Mr. Kılıçdaroğlu is thinking about his own crew. It’s now time to stop this all,” he said. “They brought this party to this situation. Their teams are doing this, but the CHP is too big a party to be left to two chairmen.”
“If something happens to the CHP,” Sevigen said, “it’s the fault of those two.”
