Only 5 percent of CHP voters back Kılıçdaroğlu’s return as party leader: poll

Only 5 percent of voters for Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) support former chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu’s return to party leadership after a controversial court ruling removed Özgür Özel and the party’s current leadership, according to a new survey by the KONDA polling company.

The survey found that a majority of the public and CHP voters oppose the ruling by the 36th Civil Chamber of the Ankara Regional Court of Justice, which annulled the CHP’s 38th Ordinary Congress, where Özel defeated Kılıçdaroğlu in November 2023 and became party chairman.

The court ruled that the congress was legally invalid and ordered Kılıçdaroğlu and the party bodies elected under his leadership to return to office.

Support for Kılıçdaroğlu’s return to the chairmanship came mainly from voters of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), according to KONDA.

Among CHP voters, 43 percent said the Özel leadership should ignore the court ruling and continue in office, while 53 percent supported a new congress. Only 5 percent said Kılıçdaroğlu should serve as party chairman.

The court ruling has plunged Turkey’s oldest political party into turmoil, sparked protests and intensified criticism that the judiciary is being used to reshape the opposition.

According to KONDA, 39 percent of respondents said the ruling was “definitely wrong,” while 13 percent said it was “wrong,” bringing the total share of those who viewed the decision negatively to 52 percent.

Only 8 percent said the ruling was “right,” while 3 percent said it was “definitely right.” Another 37 percent said it was “neither right nor wrong.”

Since the survey was circulated only to KONDA subscribers, details such as the number of respondents, fieldwork dates and margin of error were not immediately available.

KONDA said the ruling had failed to gain strong support even among pro-government voters. It said the large share of respondents who chose “neither right nor wrong” appeared to reflect reluctance among undecided voters, nonvoters and many AKP supporters to take a clear position in a highly polarized political dispute.

The poll also found that a majority of voters believe the CHP should quickly hold a new congress. Support for a new congress stood at 59 percent nationwide, 53 percent among AKP voters and 68 percent among MHP voters.

Veteran journalist Ertuğrul Özkök said in an article on the T24 news website on Wednesday that the poll showed Kılıçdaroğlu would face a major defeat if a new congress were held.

Writing about the results, Özkök recalled that Özel received 812 votes against Kılıçdaroğlu’s 536 at the CHP’s 2023 congress, a difference of 276 votes.

“Looking at the first poll results, if a congress were held today, Kılıçdaroğlu would not dare to run,” Özkök wrote. “If he does, the number of votes he would receive is clearly visible in the poll above. This would be a defeat.”

Kılıçdaroğlu led the CHP for 13 years before losing the party leadership to Özel. He was also the opposition’s joint presidential candidate in 2023, when he lost to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Rights groups and opposition figures have described the decision as part of growing pressure on the CHP, which scored a sweeping victory over Erdoğan’s ruling AKP in the March 2024 local elections.

Since then, many CHP-run municipalities have been targeted in investigations, with elected mayors detained, arrested or removed from office. İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, widely seen as Erdoğan’s strongest political rival, has been jailed since March 2025 on corruption charges he denies.

The CHP says the court cases and investigations targeting the party are politically motivated and aimed at rolling back its local election gains.

The government denies targeting the opposition and says the judiciary acts independently.