(AA photo)
Lawmaker Ali Fazıl Kasap on Aug. 14 left the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and joined the New Path alliance, restoring the bloc’s membership to the 20 deputies required to retain group status in parliament.
The move came after Mustafa Bilici left New Path to join the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), reducing the group’s membership from 20 to 19 and putting its parliamentary group status at risk.
The New Path bloc was formed by the Felicity Party (SP), the Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA Party) and the Future Party as a joint parliamentary grouping.
Bilici was among four lawmakers expected to remain independent within the group after Future Party announced its dissolution last month.
CHP’s Kasap had previously made a similar move to preserve a parliamentary group’s status. In December 2023, after SP lawmaker Hasan Bitmez died following an illness in parliament, the party’s number of lawmakers fell to 19.
Kasap then left the CHP to join SP, helping the party retain its parliamentary group formed with the Future Party. He later returned to the CHP following the establishment of New Path.
Kasap’s departure leaves the CHP with 44 lawmakers. The İYİ (Good) Party has 27 lawmakers after Mehmet Mustafa Gürban and Ömer Karakaş resigned. Parliament currently has 13 independent lawmakers.
The total number of lawmakers in the 600-seat parliament has fallen to 592 due to the deaths of Bitmez and DEM Party lawmaker Sırrı Süreyya Önder, the removal of Workers’ Party of Türkiye (TİP) lawmaker Şerafettin Can Atalay’s parliamentary status, the appointment of AKP’s Murat Kurum as a minister and the election of CHP lawmakers as mayors.
