CHP to change rules to ease intra-party tensions

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) will amend its internal rules to ease intra-party tension, as the party prepares for the unprecedented situation of holding two conventions in three days.

“There are some obstacles preventing the CHP from coming to power because of internal rules. [Prospective] amendments will resolve those problems,” CHP deputy chairman Nihat Matkap said yesterday.

Speaking at the opening of the first meeting of his party’s convention preparatory commission, Matkap said that their primary objective was to strengthen intra-party democracy by changing the statute.
The chairman will be able to associate the convention calls with different agendas, according to the party administration’s draft. This move is seen as a counter-maneuver to prevent dissident’s further convention calls, as they were the first to call an extraordinary convention on Jan. 18, with 362 of the 1,250 party delegates backing the move.

The question of who calls the convention is critical as it allows the callers to determine the agenda of the gathering. The dissidents have listed a series of demands aimed at curbing chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu’s
powers. Kılıçdaroğlu, however,

called an extraordinary convention Feb. 26 to amend the party statute under an agenda he personally drew up. The dissidents’ gathering is set for March 1.