İYİ Party faces escalating departures ahead of local elections

ANKARA

The İYİ (Good) Party has found itself grappling with escalating internal strife as resignations continue to mount following its recent decision to field its own candidates in all constituencies for next March's mayoral election and subsequent disputes.

The decision marks a departure from the party's previous alliance with the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), a move that had proven successful in key battlegrounds like Istanbul and the capital Ankara during the 2019 local polls.

The party's solo run bid, decided by the party's general administrative board on Dec. 4, has triggered a series of departures, with lawmakers and key figures within the party administration resigning or being dismissed. The most recent incident adding fuel to the discord involved Ayhan Pala, who was initially declared as the party's mayoral candidate for northern Trabzon city's Ortahisar district.

Pala's removal came after his post on X that read, "cooperation is a must." The party interpreted this as a call for an alliance with the CHP, prompting the cancellation of his bid. İYİ Party Trabzon head Fatma Başkan publicly apologized for Pala's candidacy as what she described as a "wrong decision."

Meanwhile, the turmoil within the party had escalated further with the resignation of Istanbul MP Mehmet Salim Ensarioğlu. His departure was triggered by a dispute over a municipal decision to name a boulevard in eastern Diyarbakır city after Sheikh Said, a controversial figure known for leading a Kurdish rebellion against the state in 1925.

The naming of the boulevard after the Kurdish sheikh has ignited a debate within the İYİ Party. Despite facing backlash, Ensarioğlu defended Sheikh Said as "one of the most important values of our region" and was subsequently disciplined by the party.

In response, 12,750 party members in Diyarbakır – including Ensarioğlu's son Vejdin Ensarioğlu, the party's head in the province, and 17 district heads – tendered their resignations.