With the completion of the presidential election, CHP’s eyes were turned to the previously postponed congress. On the night of the election, CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu signaled that he would continue his duty after the meeting with the members of the central board of directors and said, “Our march continues, we are here.” That night, MYK members and some party members supported Kılıçdaroğlu. A wing in the party argues that Kılıçdaroğlu “did his best, but there was an assembled campaign against him”. This group, which supports Kılıçdaroğlu, says that “local elections should be held in unity, the government will not be able to rule the country for 5 years due to the economic situation, therefore it may be an early election”. It is stated that the congress postponed by the party can be postponed either after the local elections or to the period of November or December. In this process, it is said that there may be some changes in MYK.
IMAMOGLU’S EXIT
On the other hand, there are criticisms of Kılıçdaroğlu within the party. At this point, the name of Ekrem İmamoğlu, the Mayor of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, is mentioned. Imamoglu said, “The only thing that does not change is change. We will not expect different results by doing the same things” is said to be a message to the opposition within the party. There are also comments such as “Ekrem Bey was a more suitable candidate” within the party.
Kılıçdaroğlu’s wing commented on these comments: “Anybody could not have won against this black propaganda. There is also a political ban situation”. However, it is also known that some mayors have been advocating that İmamoğlu should be a candidate since the beginning of the process. Bolu Mayor Tanju Özcan openly calls for Kılıçdaroğlu’s resignation. While the CHP top management remained quieter after the election, most of the staff noted that “the process will be evaluated more soundly after a few days.”
Kılıçdaroğlu said, “We will continue to be the pioneer of this struggle until real democracy comes to our country. Our march continues, we are here” and gave the message ‘continue’.