CHP leader to appoint brand-new executive board

ANKARA

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has decided to appoint a completely new executive board (MYK) following the defeats in the parliamentary and presidential polls.

Kılıçdaroğlu chaired a five-hour-long meeting of the Central Executive Board of the CHP on June 1 in which all 17 members of the board introduced their resignations from their jobs to the chairman. No statement was issued after the meeting.

The meeting followed May 14 parliamentary polls in which the CHP-led alliance lost the parliamentary majority to its main rival People’s Alliance and May 28 presidential polls that resulted in a defeat for Kılıçdaroğlu against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

According to the reports, Kılıçdaroğlu will hold the Party Assembly on June 3 before he announces the new members of the Central Executive Board. The members are selected from the 50-member Party Assembly by the chairman.

During the meeting, Kılıçdaroğlu and his aides also discussed the reasons behind the defeat, the reports suggested. Kılıçdaroğlu is expected to make a comprehensive statement in the coming days about the new strategy and the road map the CHP will pursue until the local elections slated for March 2024.

The party also agreed to hold the CHP’s bi-annual convention until the end of 2023. Kılıçdaroğlu is expected to run the leadership of the CHP until the local elections and decide what he will do afterward.

“We will decide about our road map altogether following our meetings at MYK,” Kılıçdaroğlu was quoted as saying by the Turkish media before the meeting took place.

The CHP is also trying to establish a new team for the parliament as Kılıçdaroğlu will not be able to lead the CHP group as he is no longer a lawmaker. Deputy parliamentary group leader Özgür Özel is expected to be elected as the new group leader of the CHP.

Meanwhile, the office of the parliament speaker has sent 28 summary proceedings against Kılıçdaroğlu to the Justice Ministry as the CHP leader no longer enjoys parliamentary immunity.