The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) will hold a preliminary election among its more than 1.5 million members to determine its presidential candidate for the next general election slated for 2028, party leader Özgür Özel has announced.
“We will determine [the presidential candidate] together with 1.6 million brave hearts who are registered members of Atatürk’s party,” Özel said at a his party’s parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday, referring to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the CHP and modern Turkey.
He called on everyone — including retirees, the poor and students — to become members of the CHP to be able to vote to determine the party’s presidential candidate before a date is set for the election, warning that those who become members after the announcement of the election day will not be eligible to vote.
The CHP’s decision to launch the process to determine its presidential candidate comes in the wake of growing judicial pressure on the party over the past several months, which saw the arrest of several party mayors in İstanbul and their removal from office on what many say are politically motivated charges.
“We are on the first day of the process of determining our presidential candidate. Today is the first day of our march against evil and a lack of justice,” Özel said.
Among the possible candidates are İstanbul’s popular Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavaş. Both are serving their second terms in office and have long been mentioned among the most likely candidates of the CHP in the next presidential election.
İmamoğlu, seen as Erdoğan’s strongest political rival, ended the yearslong Justice and Development Party (AKP) rule in İstanbul when he defeated the AKP’s mayoral candidate twice in local elections in 2019. He won a rerun election by a larger margin than in the first election, which was canceled due to supposed irregularities.
He was re-elected İstanbul mayor in the March 2024 local elections, again leaving the AKP candidate far behind.
Over the past 10 days two separate investigations have been launched into the mayor due to his criticism of the judicial authorities involved in the trials and investigations of CHP mayors in İstanbul. İmamoğlu accused them of acting on orders from the government.
There are claims that Erdoğan wants to sideline İmamoğlu — the mostly likely candidate to challenge Erdoğan if he tries to seek another term as president — with such operations in CHP municipalities.
İmamoğlu had already been sentenced to more than two years in prison and barred from politics in December 2022 for allegedly insulting members of Turkey’s Supreme Election Board (YSK). He appelaed his sentence, which is still pending.
Former AKP minister joins CHP
Selma Aliye Kavaf, a former family minister in the AKP government between May 2009 and June 2011, has joined the CHP. Özel welcomed her to the party, pinning a party badge on Kavaf’s jacket during the CHP parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday.
Kavaf, who served in senior positions in the AKP following its establishment in 2002, later parted ways with the party and joined former AKP minister Ali Babacan’s Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA), established in March 2020.
She announced her resignation from the DEVA Party earlier this month before joining the CHP.
Kavaf was elected to parliament in the May 2023 general election on the CHP ticket since the DEVA Party was part of an opposition alliance.
She is notorious for her controversial statements about homosexuality, saying in 2010 that she opposes homosexuality and believes that is a “biological disorder,” a disease that “needs to be treated.”