Tuba Vural Çokal, a deputy chairman of Turkey’s opposition İYİ (Good) Party and a lawmaker from Antalya province, has resigned from the party due to intra-party conflicts that she claims were mismanaged by party executives.
“I saw that the personal interests and egos [of certain people] constituted a barrier before [party] principles, and even the executives with the most authority could not manage [to solve the problem],” she said in a statement posted on Twitter on Wednesday.
She also criticized party executives for interfering in a local branch convention to elect new management in Antalya.
Following Çokal’s resignation, the İYİ Party now has 38 deputies in the Turkish parliament, while the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has 290, the Republican People’s Party (CHP) 142, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) 65, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) 49, the Felicity Party (SP) 2, the Turkish Workers’ Party (TİP) 2, the Democrat Party (DP) 1 and the Grand Unity Party (BBP) 1. There are also five independents in the legislature, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency.