Republican People’s Party (CHP) spokesperson Bülent Tezcan said on Thursday that an emergency convention to change party management was not on the agenda, the T24 news website reported.
“We don’t think it would be efficient to have an intra-party power struggle in terms of planning future goals,” Tezcan told reporters after an executive board meeting at CHP headquarters in Ankara.
He also said a majority of the party delegates were in line with the executive board.
“Our chairman nominated Muharrem İnce as a presidential candidate. Was he the wrong choice?” Tezcan added.
The CHP’s presidential candidate İnce and Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu met at a three-hour-long dinner on Monday.
“I proposed that if he wants, he could call for an emergency convention, that I could become chairman and he could be the honorary chairman,” İnce told the press after the dinner.
İnce’s statement reportedly sparked an intra-party discussion over a change in party management. Delegates close to İnce started a signature campaign on Thursday to push the party to an emergency convention, according to the Turkish media. If the number of signatures reaches an absolute majority, İnce will make an official application to party management for an emergency convention.
One of the prominent figures in the CHP, İzmir Mayor Aziz Kocaoğlu, also said on Wednesday the elections had brought a need for change inside the party.
Whereas the CHP garnered around 22 percent of the vote, İnce’s presidential votes surpassed 30 percent in the elections on June 24.
İnce, on the other hand did not respond to the CHP executive board’s decision despite persistent questions from journalists during a political rally in Kırklareli as part of İnce’s “tour of thanks” across Turkey after the elections.
“Don’t rush. I won’t answer through the media. I am following the process, branches in 30 cities made a statement of support. They’re collecting signatures,” İnce said.