Bahçeli calls for CHP convention on Sept 9 amid leader crisis
Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli called on the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) to hold a new convention on Sept. 9 following a court ruling that annulled the party’s previous leadership election.
Bahçeli said CHP should begin a renewal process under former chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who was reinstated as party leader after the court’s ruling invalidated the convention that brought Özgür Özel to power.
“Mr. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu is the CHP chairman,” Bahçeli told daily Türkgün in an interview published May 27. “From this point on, Mr. Kılıçdaroğlu will naturally fulfill the requirements of the court ruling and his role as chairman.”
Bahçeli said Kılıçdaroğlu’s pledge to “restore CHP to its founding codes” amounted to an acknowledgment that the party had drifted from its founding principles.
