Former presidential candidate İnce forms Homeland Party

ANKARA

Muharrem İnce, a former veteran politician from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) who ran for the presidency in 2018 but lost against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has formed his own party, the Homeland Party, after splitting ways with CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.

A petition for the formation of the party was submitted to the Interior Ministry late May 17, making the Homeland Party Turkey’s 110th political party. In its first meeting, İnce was elected as the chairman of the party and former CHP member Gaye Usluer as the deputy leader and spokesperson of the party.

“We vow to take back our future. We promise as the Homeland Party to crown this country with democracy, freedoms and peace for the young people of this country and for everyone,” Usluer told at a press conference.

The Homeland Party is represented at the parliament with three lawmakers who had resigned from the CHP. İzmir MP Mehmet Ali Çelebi, Karabük MP Hüseyin Avni Aksoy and Yalova MP Özcan Özel will also serve as the deputy leaders.

İnce, who formed what he called the “Homeland Movement” in mid-2020 and traveled across the country, announced his decision to formally part ways with the CHP at a press conference he held on Feb. 8 in Ankara.

He ran as CHP’s candidate against Erdoğan in the 2018 presidential election, getting 31 percent of the votes behind Erdogan’s 53 percent support. He became a vocal critic of Kılıçdaroğlu and made unsuccessful bids to replace him as party chairman.

“We are challenging both the government and the opposition. You will see that we will be the second party in two months,” İnce said in his first public appearance after the formation of his party while criticizing both the opposition and the government.