MHP rejects reports of congress decision referral to Constitutional Court

ANKARA

The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) has denied claims that Turkey’s Supreme Court of Appeals has handed the file on the party’s extraordinary congress to the Constitutional Court.

MHP Deputy Chair Semih Yalçın said reports on deferral “did not reflect the truth,” adding that the legal process on the extraordinary congress is ongoing.

Earlier reports had stated that the Supreme Court of Appeals handed the file on the MHP extraordinary congress to the Constitutional Court, after an MHP delegate applied to defer the file to Turkey’s highest court.

Opponents within the MHP had applied to court to force an extraordinary congress in the wake of the party’s poor result in last November’s general election.

A total of 543 delegates then sent a petition to party headquarters demanding an extraordinary congress in the aftermath of the election, which saw the MHP lose its position as the third largest group in the parliament, falling behind the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP). However, the party management denounced the call, describing the attempt as “illegal” and launching internal probes against several dissidents.

An Ankara court previously appointed a three-member panel to organize an extraordinary congress, accepting the demands of dissident MHP members, against which the party HQ appealed.