New Party Chairman Özgür Özel visited the New Party’s Ankara Provincial Headquarters to cast his vote as part of the party’s primary election for the chairmanship, held in all 81 provinces.
New Party leader Özgür Özel has won his main opposition movement’s leadership primary as the sole candidate ahead of its first ordinary convention scheduled for Nov. 14-15.
Party members voted across Türkiye on Nov. 8, with around 3,000 polling centers established in nearly 900 districts, according to reports. Özel cast his ballot at the party’s Ankara provincial headquarters.
The primary is part of a broader effort by the emerging party to “introduce direct democracy into its internal decision-making, allowing members rather than delegates to elect its leadership.”
Speaking after voting, Özel said the party had worked to establish a system in which members would have a direct say in political decisions, from district and provincial leaderships to the party chairmanship.
“We have come to a point where, starting with district chairs and continuing with provincial chairs, the party chair is now directly determined by members,” he said.
Özel also outlined the party’s campaign strategy, saying it would initially mobilize a large organization to reach voters across the country.
“We have a 250,000-strong propaganda army, an election campaign army,” he said, inviting both party members and nonmembers to join the effort.
“No voter will be left whose door has not been knocked on, whose home has not been visited or who has not been reached.”
The Nov. 14-15 convention in Ankara will mark another step in the party’s organizational process, with members and delegates set to determine its leadership structures and governing bodies.
