The message CHP sent with primary elections

What kind of messages should we deduce from the main opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) recent election primaries?

The essential message should be this: Primaries increase the enthusiasm and feeling of belonging to the party’s constituency, increasing the intensity of the will of the people.

Whether you appreciate it or criticize it, at the end of the day the CHP’s primaries have served to localize politics to some degree. In contrast to the “cold weather” created by appointment from the center, local politics warms the climate considerably.

Of course, the following criticisms are valid too: “The political party’s center determines the members of the party’s provincial organizations. Therefore, at the end of the day, parliamentary candidates are determined according to the power of the provincial organizations loyal to the center.”

Despite the influence of the provincial organizations, the process of the primaries makes the voter constituency more dynamic and alive. That is why the CHP’s primaries were an invaluable step for the development of politics and democracy in Turkey.

No fighting wanted

Another striking result of the primaries was the message given by the majority of CHP members: “I don’t want fighting in the party. I want projects, harmony and government.”

The fact that the former secretary generals of the party Önder Sav and Hakkı Süha Okay were unable to make it onto the lists...

The fact that former Şişli mayor Mustafa Sarıgül could not make it into the top three...

The fact that party veteran Adnan Keskin and other similar party members only got a few votes...

Meanwhile, former CHP head Deniz Baykal could have asked his successor to nominate him within the party leader-decided quota. But he opted not to do so. Instead, he decided to run in the primaries. He worked. And he came in second place.

This is an important message for all those who want to be nominated as candidates via the quotas. The fact that Kılıçdaroğlu only came in second place is also a message from the party members, given not only to him but also to the party headquarters.

Victory of women

The primaries saw a rise in the number of women. The number of women candidates rose, especially in three large cities. The success of women in the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) seems to have affected the CHP.

But the most essential message is this:

If we want advanced democracy...

If we want the representatives of the people rather than representative of the leader...

If we want the will of the people to be better reflected...

If we want the politics of the elected rather than the politics of the appointed...

Then we need to make the party laws more democratic.

If the party provincial organizations’ members are determined by the leader and his close circle in Ankara - and in return the provincial organizations elect the leader - then this “equation” is not acceptable.

According to this perspective, the rule within the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) that a member cannot become a candidate after serving three times in parliament is an invaluable practice too.

Those who lose the elections must go

There is a unique aspect about the upcoming general election.

If CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu cannot seriously increase the votes of his party…
If he cannot become an alternative to the government…

If the AK Party’s votes decrease under the leadership of Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, thus increasing the risk of a change of government…

Then the two will most probably go.

If Turkish democracy can be saved from the repeating mechanism of losing leaders who keep insisting on staying despite the will of the people, this will be a democratic revolution.

I must also add this: All this can take place in a presidential system, provided the will of the nation is fully reflected by the administration, provided that we do politics according to the free choice of individuals rather than according to sects, brotherhoods, and ethnicities, and provided that we can turn away from the politics of the appointed to the politics of the elected.

It can take place provided a new understanding of politics where people can freely live according to their culture and conscience.