İYİ Party's six Istanbul council members resign amid election rift

ISTANBUL

Amid the escalating internal turmoil within the İYİ (Good) Party, six out of 10 members in the party's Istanbul municipal council have tendered their resignations.

The resignations come in the wake of a contentious decision by the party's leadership to field its own candidates in all constituencies for next March's mayoral election, cutting off its longstanding alliance with the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP).

The İYİ Party's general administrative board, on Dec. 4, decided to break away from the successful electoral cooperation with the CHP, a strategy that played a crucial role in securing victories in key battlegrounds, including Istanbul and the capital Ankara, during the 2019 polls.

The fallout from the party's solo run bid has been palpable, with a wave of resignations and dismissals among lawmakers and key figures within the party administration. The most recent development saw the İYİ Party's Istanbul municipal council group facing internal upheaval, as İbrahim Özkan, the party's council head and a proponent of electoral cooperation with the CHP, along with his five fellow council members, resigned.

"Principled politics requires being sincere and open-minded. If your words and actions do not inspire confidence, we cannot talk about principled politics," Özkan wrote on X on Dec. 17.

Among the other council members who submitted their resignations were Bora Kılıç, Oğuz Sarul, Sinan Gümüş, Uluer Kaya and Yakup Fındık.

İYİ Party officials advocating for an alliance with the CHP argue that running separate candidates could give the sole candidate of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP)-led People's Alliance a significant advantage in the megacity.

The CHP has already announced incumbent mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu as its candidate, while the ruling alliance's candidate is yet to be revealed.

Özkan's initial resignation on Dec. 12, at the request of İYİ Party leader Meral Akşener, paved the way for his reelection to fill the vacancy.

However, seven members supporting the resolution faced potential expulsion after the election results favored Özkan's reinstatement.

Notably absent from the election meeting was Suat Sarı, the party's spokesperson in the council, who announced his candidacy for the İYİ Party's Istanbul mayoral position.

In a press statement at the municipal building in Saraçhane quarter on Dec. 16, Özkan claimed that a significant portion of the party's Istanbul organization, roughly 80 percent, was in the process of resigning.