Months ahead of local elections in Türkiye, the opposition’s Republican People’s Party (CHP) is gearing up for a busy assembly that will result in either a fresh chairperson or the reelection of incumbent Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.
The party on Wednesday launched preparations for its 57th congress set to take place on Nov. 4-5.
Throughout October, a four-tiered process, in which separate congresses are held first in neighborhoods, then in districts, in provinces and finally, nationwide, will select a total of 1,370 delegates that will determine the party’s leadership and charter.
The party has so far selected 34 provincial chairs, starting with Izmir and the capital Ankara. The Istanbul congress is scheduled for Oct. 8 when one of the former provincial chairs Cemal Canpolat and Özgür Çelik, described as a “reformist,” will compete.
Türkiye’s biggest metropolitan holds a vital spot for the upcoming congress with 196 delegates on the docket.
The CHP has held some 56 congresses so far, 37 of which were ordinary, and the upcoming assembly could be a turning point for the party, which observed its 100th anniversary on Sept. 9 as the oldest of its kind in modern Türkiye.
Established by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Turkish republic, the party has had only seven chairpersons since 1923, along with several briefly serving as acting chairs.
Nowadays, it trails behind the governing Justice and Development Party (AK Party) with escalating calls for Kılıçdaroğlu’s resignation over yet another crushing defeat in the last general elections in May.
A new chair
The last time the CHP convened its congress was in July 2020 when Kılıçdaroğlu was reelected with a landslide of 1,251 votes from 1,318 delegates.
Kılıçdaroğlu has been holding the CHP’s reins since 2010 but he’s looking at increasingly low odds this year as the dissatisfaction with the party’s electoral strategy failure and Kılıçdaroğlu’s “refusal to take accountability” and resign after May continues driving a deepening schism between his supporters and critics chanting for change.
He currently has three challengers in Özgür Özel, Örsan Kunter Öymen and Ünal Karahasan.
Özel, a pharmacist turned lawmaker, officially announced his candidacy earlier this month, claiming he was “ready to do anything” to boost support for CHP.
Öymen, a former party council member and journalist, argued the CHP “has to rid itself of a feudal mentality that bans any criticism of its leadership” as he tossed his hat in the ring.
Karahasan, current member and author is the latest addition to the race who declared Wednesday he would “stand up for Atatürk’s two great works – CHP and Türkiye” by challenging Kılıçdaroğlu.
However, a candidate needs the approving signatures of at least 5% of all elected delegates, meaning 69 members, to be able to officially run for CHP chairpersonship.
Kılıçdaroğlu, who is yet to formally announce his bid, is likely to be nominated by delegates while Özel is said to be the only other candidate close to achieving the required number.
Additionally, by November’s end, the CHP will convene again to ratify a new charter and program, which the members are working to “modernize” by following the codes of European leftist parties and other parties in Türkiye.
Whether the party can lick its wounds in time for the mayoral elections in March 2024 is vital for their odds of keeping Türkiye’s top cities, Istanbul, Ankara and even historical stronghold Izmir.
After its six-party coalition fell apart due to May’s defeat, the CHP is seemingly without allies, especially its biggest partner Good Party (IP) and unexpected friend Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), whose endorsement in 2019 helped put CHP mayors in Istanbul and Ankara for the first time in 25 years since AK Party has been in power.
With the IP and the HDP, widely condemned for alleged links to the PKK terrorist group, announcing plans to compete with their own mayoral candidates, the CHP, renewed leadership or not, is looking at grim odds at any rate.
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