MHP refers Akşener, emergency convention delegation to disciplinary board

ANKARA – Anadolu Agency

DHA photo

The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) referred dissident candidate Meral Akşener and its emergency convention delegation to the party’s disciplinary board on Aug. 16 with a demand for their expulsion from the party on the grounds that they violated Article 11 of the party code, Anadolu Agency reported. 

Ayhan Erel, Ali Sağır and Mehmet Bilgiç were the members of the emergency convention delegation that were referred to the disciplinary board.

Article 11 of the party’s statutes outlines the party membership, mission and responsibilities.

Erel was briefly detained on July 28 but released the next day in connection with an ongoing investigation into the Fethullahist Terror Organization (FETÖ), believed to be behind the July 15 failed coup attempt. 

Akşener commented on her referral to the party’s disciplinary board, saying it made her remember a “beautiful” Turkish saying, which corresponds to “doing something at lightning speed.”

“That saying came to my mind after I found out that I had been referred to the party’s disciplinary board with a demand for my expulsion,” Akşener wrote on her Twitter account on Aug. 16.

Amid numerous court rulings and counter court rulings, Turkey’s top election authority, the Supreme Election Board (YSK), ruled out a planned snap MHP congress that dissidents, including Akşener, had arranged. The decision came amid a growing rift within the party, as dissidents bid to unseat long-standing MHP chair Devlet Bahçeli, who accuses his opponents of plotting against the party.