 is preparing a two-stage political strategy aimed at forcing early elections amid an intensifying crackdown targeting party-run municipalities that critics fear could extend to the party leadership, BBC Turkish service reported Wednesday.){kind=link}
Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) is preparing a two-stage political strategy aimed at forcing early elections amid an intensifying crackdown targeting party-run municipalities that critics fear could extend to the party leadership, BBC Turkish service reported Wednesday.
The plan, announced by CHP leader Özgür Özel at a press conference held at party headquarters, involves first triggering parliamentary early elections through mass resignations of party lawmakers, followed by a second phase targeting local councils to compel new municipal votes.
Özel accused the government of pursuing a strategy to “eliminate its rivals” and reiterated his call for early elections, saying the party would “try every possible way” to force a vote.
Özel said he would request a meeting with Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş to discuss the process. “Once the decision to hold an early election is taken and the necessary assurances are in place, we will take another very assertive step,” he added, without elaborating.
Under Article 78 of Turkey’s constitution, parliament can call an early election once per legislative term, provided that 30 months have passed since the last general election and more than one year remains before the next vote.
With the May 2023 elections meeting those criteria as of November 2025, an early election becomes mandatory if vacant seats reach 5 percent of parliament, equivalent to 30 lawmakers.
Currently, eight parliamentary seats are vacant due to deaths and resignations. CHP officials are therefore considering orchestrating the resignation of at least 22 additional lawmakers to reach the threshold.
However, such resignations must be approved by the General Assembly, meaning the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which holds a parliamentary majority, would ultimately determine whether the move succeeds, according to BBC Turkish.
If the early election strategy fails, the CHP plans a second phase involving coordinated resignations from city councils in areas where the party holds strong majorities.
According to Turkey’s municipal elections law, local elections must be renewed if council membership falls below half after all substitute members have been exhausted.
Özel suggested that such a move could be implemented in municipalities where the CHP secured overwhelming control, effectively forcing new local elections and increasing pressure on the government.
The CHP leader called on President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to call elections in May or June.
Party officials said the strategy is also intended to push Turkey into an “election climate” and create public pressure on the government by portraying it as avoiding the ballot box.
Concerns over growing crackdown
The strategy comes amid an expanding legal campaign against the CHP following its gains in the March 2024 local elections, when the party won control of many major cities and handed Erdoğan’s ruling AKP one of its worst municipal defeats in years. Since October 2024 opposition mayors and municipal officials have faced a series of corruption and terrorism-related investigations that critics say are politically motivated.
Most recently, authorities detained the mayor of Bursa, Turkey’s fourth-largest city, along with dozens of others in a sweeping corruption investigation, with operations carried out in coordinated raids across multiple provinces and extending to members of his family.
Legal scrutiny has also reached Ankara. Last week, a court accepted an indictment of 10 people over alleged misconduct in procurement procedures at the CHP-run Ankara Metropolitan Municipality. The case, based on a 2022 audit report, was approved by the Interior Ministry.
The ministry had earlier granted permission to investigate Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavaş and his chief of staff, Nevzat Uzunoğlu, over allegations of “abuse of office” and “neglect of supervisory duties” related to municipal concert spending.
Within the CHP, there is growing concern that the crackdown could expand beyond municipalities to target senior party figures, including Yavaş and the party leadership.
Yavaş, a senior figure in the CHP who was re-elected in 2024 with more than 60 percent of the vote, is widely seen as a potential alternative presidential contender if İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, who is currently behind bars, is barred from running.
İmamoğlu was detained on March 19, a move that triggered large-scale protests across Turkey and coincided with turbulence in financial markets, deepening concerns about political pressure on the opposition.
While some party officials warn that operations could broaden further, others argue that the economic fallout following March 19, combined with regional instability, may limit the government’s willingness to risk another escalation that could reinforce perceptions of political repression.