CHP to hold party assembly for polls road map

ANKARA

The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) will hold its top executive body on Feb. 10 to discuss a road map for the next presidential polls amid internal discussions about the timing of the move.

The 60-member Party Assembly will meet under the leadership of Chairman Özgür Özel in the Turkish capital. It will discuss recent political developments particularly after the detention of two Istanbul district mayors and opening new prosecution against Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and the actions to be taken by the CHP.

In line with the party’s calls on the government for snap elections, the CHP is mulling to hold primaries to select the main opposition’s presidential candidate in the coming months. The Party Assembly will discuss and vote on a road map to determine the modalities of the primaries as well as the criteria for the potential contenders.

However, some senior party officials, including former Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavaş are against a hasty selection of a presidential candidate.

“Why are we in a hurry? Why are we dividing the party?” asked Kılıçdaroğlu in a televised interview on Feb. 7. Yavaş, for his part, objected to the idea stressing that the CHP should not undermine the real agenda of the country which is the deteriorating economy and high cost of living.

Yavaş and İmamoğlu are considered to be the party’s top two presidential candidates. The latter supports the idea of holding primary elections in the coming months.

Many CHP officials backed selecting the presidential candidate as soon as possible after prosecutors opened investigations against İmamoğlu. Selecting İmamoğlu as the candidate will protect him from further legal prosecutions and sentencing, the party officials believe.

Özel was scheduled to meet İmamoğlu and Yavaş on Feb. 9 before the Party Assembly meeting.