CHP victory-oriented for the first time
When we review the deputy candidate lists, we cannot say, for any party, “Wow, look who they came up with.” The lists are as expected. Because there are no big surprises, we turn to looking for differences.
The differences were in two parties, first in the Republican People’s Party (CHP), because it held preliminaries, and the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), because half of its candidates are women.
CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu’s quota preferences can be criticized or applauded depending on where you stand, but because it gave the message “I will march to power maintaining my existing staff,” it is understood that he aims to not create any crises.
In a party like the CHP, there has been only a bit of resentment from a couple of provinces, but this looks temporary, and this is a sign of the above when compared to the rebellions of the past.
In the CHP list, completed with the final touches of the quota candidates, we can say that they sought the representation of all segments of society. Those names who were not in the preliminaries but who can address the Black Sea, migrants, minorities and the Kurds are now on the CHP list.
For example, a candidate for one of Istanbul’s constituencies, who is considered to be the biggest surprise of the list, is the well-equipped Selina Özuzun Doğan, and she should be viewed from this point of view as well as Sezgin Tanrıkulu, Akif Hamzaçebi, Mehmet Bekaroğlu, Engin Altay and Bihlun Tamaylıgil.
However, in an important province such as İzmir, the lack of a Kurdish candidate can be seen as a problem, together with the inadequacy of migrant representation, and that the quotas were filled with outsiders.
There would also be some who consider it an injustice that some of the names that were left out of the list were those who gave a serious fight against the giant ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in parliament and those who were experts in their fields, even if the voter tolerates this in the final analysis.
The CHP list contains not only all ethnic, faith, sectarian and social levels but also left-social democrats, ultranationalist, the center right and conservative colors.
Even though the number of woman candidates is up a little bit with those who succeeded in the preliminaries, it is still quite behind the level suitable for a social democrat party.
Also, the lack of women who have the support of the party organization is quite noticeable: it is not only at the nongovernmental organization level but also from the point of the CHP women’s branches.
While the top-level administrators of women and youth branches were told to enter the preliminary elections, the same suggestion was not told to the members of the Central Executive Board, which can be considered unjust at this point.
For the first time, CHP has made a list that highlights its ambition for power as well as the economy.
It looks as if its promises will also support this staff selection. Thanks to preliminaries, the CHP looks as if it has averted some threats from the HDP.
For instance, the HDP should see that the number of Alevis on the list – who almost all won the preliminaries – is at a level that would stop the pressure the HDP would exert on the CHP.
The HDP will probably continue to steal votes from the intellectual and left grassroots who have voted for the CHP. However, it does not look possible that the threshold will be overcome through this.
The HDP, as a matter of fact, has to look at AKP votes. Actually, the HDP list gives that impression.
In sum, the CHP list has aimed at attracting new segments in society without scaring the current voter. The major contribution to this has been the preliminaries which gave the opportunity to Kılıçdaroğlu to fill in the blanks.
If those who have won the preliminaries have the same level of success in parliament, then this method will force all other parties to do so as well, too, allowing democracy to win and thus making all of us happy.
