The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) announced March 23 as the date of “primaries” to select its presidential candidate.
Chair Özgür Özel confirmed the vote would take place next month at a parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday.
The party long campaigned for an early election and it is unclear whether this candidate will be for the early vote party hoped for or for the original date of the elections in 2028.
Three candidates have been in the spotlight, including Özel, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu and Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavaş, who has dropped out of the CHP primaries, arguing it was yet “too soon” to pick a presidential runner.
Imamoğlu, grappling with several legal procedures that could ban him from politics, has positioned himself as a frontrunner with Özel’s help, despite lagging behind Yavaş in public surveys.
The party, meanwhile, is embattled with allegations of corruption in a past election that brought Özel to power and ended Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu’s 13-year reign in Türkiye’s oldest party.
Turkish prosecutors on Monday launched a probe into allegations that Özel “bought” supporters to oust Kılıçdaroğlu in an intraparty election in 2023.
Kılıçdaroğlu, who has insisted since then he had been “backstabbed,” maintains his open-ended claims that the said election had been “shady.” The former CHP chair has been summoned to testify in the case so far.
Özel has dismissed his predecessor’s comments but the account of a CHP member who witnessed the election firsthand indicates the issue may not die down any time soon.
Some of the delegates who voted in the CHP intraparty election on Nov. 4-6, 2023, were paid off sums ranging from $5,000 to $30,000, Erhan Çakır told Turkish newspaper Sabah.
It was CHP’s Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu who paid them to force at least 150 delegates to switch sides against Kılıçdaroğlu, Çakır alleged.
He said the delegates said they would pay the money back but they didn’t.
“We managed the whole congress with the change crew,” Çakır said, referring to a subgroup in CHP led by Özel and Imamoğlu who championed for “change” after Kılıçdaroğlu lost back-to-back presidential elections to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during his tenure.
“That election win was Kılıçdaroğlu’s right,” Çakır said. “Özel is sitting on that chair thanks to Imamoğlu’s money.”
He claimed the money was funded by some TL 600 million spent on celebrations of the Republic Day on Oct. 29, organized by Imamoğlu’s office, the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB).
According to attorney Zafer Işeri speaking to Sabah, the 2023 intraparty election could be annulled or repeated if authorities detect any irregularities or legal violations.
“Acts such as making someone vote in exchange for money are considered as criminal acts and if there is a conviction, certain measures such as a political ban are possible,” Işeri said.
Kılıçdaroğlu’s reinstatement in case the law annuls the election is not possible unless the party bylaws include such a clause and would require a new election, the attorney said.
