CHP out of touch, own lawmaker says

ANKARA

İnce says he is against intra-party power struggles, but added that he would be willing to lead the CHP. AA Photo

One of the main opposition’s most popular lawmakers, Muharrem İnce, has criticized his Republican People’s Party (CHP) for being elitist and sluggish while hinting at a possible run at the party’s leadership.

“The CHP must question itself about why it is failing to defeat [the Justice and Development Party]. The first reason is elitist approaches. Second, everybody at our party is a general. Third, we do not work hard enough. The fourth reason is not speaking the language of the people, and the last is that we are sometimes in confrontation with the people’s values,” İnce told daily Hürriyet in remarks published yesterday.

“There is so much poverty and terror; there are 300,000 jobless teachers; famers’ produce is worthless; retired people cannot make ends meet and a social-democrat party is failing to come to power,” İnce said. “This is not an accusation, this is self-criticism.”

The lawmaker, who represents the northwestern province of Yalova, said he was against intra-party power struggles, but added that he would be willing to lead the CHP. “If one day the party tells me that they want to see me at a higher post and ask me to become the chairman, why not? Shall I refuse that?” he said.

No appeal

In a separate development, The CHP has dropped the idea of asking the Constitutional Court to cancel a recently passed law on paid military service exemption, even though it remains critical on some of its provisions, the party’s deputy group chairman Akif Hamzaçebi said on the weekend.

“We will undertake nothing that may deprive those who are going to benefit from the law from their rights. There is absolutely no preparation on our part for an application to cancel [the motion],” Hamzaçebi said.