CHP leader criticized over presidential defeat

ANKARA

Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu’s dissidents are now considering launching a campaign to hold an extraordinary convention to put the current leadership’s decision under scrutiny. AA Photo

The defeat of the two main opposition parties’ joint candidate has begun to create problems in the Republican People’s Party (CHP), as dissidents within the party are requesting those responsible to be identified concerning the choice for their candidate.

“If the chairman of the party [Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu] is responsible for this defeat, then we should to go to the convention. But if the ones responsible are individuals [who advised the chairman to appoint Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu], then these people should be expelled from the party,” Süheyl Batum, Eskişehir deputy of the CHP told the Anadolu Agency on Aug. 11.

Batum was among the CHP lawmakers who did not endorse İhsanoğlu being picked as the joint candidate with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and openly slammed Kılıçdaroğlu for not appointing someone from the CHP ranks.

Batum described the defeat of Aug. 10 as not just an election underperformance, but also as deceiving the CHP voters, underlining Kılıçdaroğlu would surely have an explanation concerning the election results. “Who came up with this strategy? From whom did the chairman hear that this candidate would get 10 percent of the Justice and Development Party’s [AKP] votes? We’ll surely ask him these questions. Who pushed us to deceive the CHP’s voters? There is someone [doing so] and he or she is responsible,” he said.

Kılıçdaroğlu’s dissidents are now considering launching a campaign to hold an extraordinary convention to put the current leadership’s decision under scrutiny and if necessary, hold an election to change the party leader.

In the meantime, Metin Feyzioğlu, head of Turkey’s Bar Association also slammed the opposition for its inability to constitute an option against the government. Feyzioğlu is seen among potential leaders of the CHP whose name has frequently been considered in Ankara as the CHP’s probable presidential candidate.

“The presidential elections resulted in the total defeat of the opposition. The opposition’s decision to appoint a joint candidate by ignoring the people’s political preferences has caused the violation of the people’s right to a free election and proliferates Turkey creeping toward a more authoritarian environment,” he said in a written statement Aug. 11. “The responsibility for this defeat cannot be laid on those who did not vote, nor on the two parties’ organizations who were completely isolated from the process.”

The appointment of a joint presidential candidate caused Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to win the elections in the first round, Feyzioğlu said, “The responsibility [for this defeat] does not belong to the two parties’ organization or to the people. It belongs to those who imposed this joint candidate formula on their parties and voters.”