The 38th Republican People's Party Ordinary Convention (), also called the Democracy and Unity Convention () was held on 4–5 November 2023 in

Ankara Arena The Ankara Arena ( tr, Ankara Spor Salonu), is an indoor sporting arena that is located in Ankara, Turkey that opened in April 2010. The seating capacity of the arena is 10,400 spectators. Built for the 2010 FIBA World Championship, the new venu ...

. During the convention, the leader and congress of the Republican People's Party (CHP), the centre-left main opposition party in

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

, was elected.

Özgür Özel Özgür Özel (born 21 September 1974) is a Turkish politician from the Republican People's Party (CHP) who has served as a parliamentary group leader of the CHP since June 2015, along with Engin Altay and Levent Gök. He is a former pharmacist ...

was elected as the party leader, bringing an end to the 13-year tenure of

Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu (born Kemal Karabulut, 17 December 1948) is a Turkish economist, retired civil servant and social democratic politician. He is leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP) and has been Leader of the Main Opposition in T ...

, who first won the position in

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

.Moreover, this marks the only time in the history of the party, except for the short-lived party leader

Altan Öymen Mehmet Altan Öymen (born 20 June 1932) is a Turkish journalist, author and former politician. Biography Öymen graduated from the School of Political Science of Ankara University. He began his journalist career already in 1950 at age of 18, an ...

, that the sitting party leader was defeated in a party congress. On the second day of the congress, when elections to the party council and the disciplinary comittee took place, 1368 delegates cast their votes in total, 1200 of which were determined by the provincial party congresses and 168 of which had the status of natural delegate. According to the results announced on November 6th, names close to the incoming party leader Özel were elected to the party organs. On 8 November 2023, the Supreme Election Council certified Özgür Özel as the new party leader. The congress about the party rulebook, which was scheduled for 25-26 November 2023, was delayed until 4-8 September 2024 because of the approaching

local elections In many parts of the world, local elections take place to select office-holders in local government, such as mayors and councillors. Elections to positions within a city or town are often known as "municipal elections". Their form and conduct vary ...

Background

Congress calendar

According to the meeting of the central executive comittee on 6 June 2023, the calendar for the congress was announced. Accordingly, the time period for the elections for the delegates to the district congresses took place between 3-30 July 2023. The newly elected delegates met between 5 August and 10 September to choose the administration of the district party leaders and the delegates to the provincial party congresses. The provincial congresses took place between 16 September and 17 October, when the provincial party administrators and the delegates to the central party congress were elected. After the conclusion of the provincial congresses, the party council decided on 26 September 2023 that the grand congress would take place on 4-5 November and the party rule congress would take place on 25-26 November.

Delegates

During the provincial conrgesses between 16 September and 17 October, which took place in every 81 of the

provinces of Turkey Turkey is divided into 81 provinces ( tr, il). Each province is divided into a number of districts (). Each provincial government is seated in the central district (). For non- metropolitan municipality designated provinces, the central distr ...

, 1200 delegates were elected, corresponding to twice the number of seats in the

Grand National Assembly Great National Assembly or Grand National Assembly may refer to: * Great National Assembly of Alba Iulia, an assembly of Romanian delegates that declared the unification of Transylvania and Romania * Great National Assembly (Socialist Republic of R ...

. Additionally, CHP members of parliament, members of the party council and the disciplinary comittee cast their votes in the conrgess as natural delegates. Out of the 1368 delegates, 1200 of which were determined in the regional congresses and the remaining 168 are classified as natural delegates, 1366 delegates cast their votes.

The congress

The congress took place on 4-5 November 2023 in the

. The presidium of the congress was lead by the mayor of Istanbul,

Ekrem İmamoğlu Ekrem İmamoğlu (; born 4 June 1970) is a Turkish businessman, real estate developer, and politician serving as the 32nd Mayor of Istanbul. He was first elected with 4.1 million votes and won with a margin of 13,000 votes against his AKP opponen ...

. On the first day of the congress, elections took place for the new party leader and on the second day, the elections to the party organs took place. Candidate for the party leadership

stated that he would be pleased by İmamoğlu's chairship of the congress. The slogan for the congress was chosen to be "The Congress for Democracy and Peace for the Second Century of the Republic".

Elections for the party leadership

The elections for the position of party leader took place on Saturday, 4th of November. Despite not having announced his candidacy yet,

collected signatures from the delegates and was nominated as a candidate for the party leader. At the same time, deputy leader of the parliamentary group of CHP,

, member of the partdy council between 2003 and 2008, Örsan Kunter Öymen, former MP

İlhan Cihaner İlhan Cihaner (born 23 February 1968, Kağızman), is a Turkish leftist politician and a former prosecutor. He's a parliamentary deputy for the Republican People's Party (CHP) since 2011. He was the Chief Public Prosecutor of Erzincan from 2007 ...

and party member Ünal Karahasan announced their candidacies for the leadership. The candidates needed the signature of 5% of the delegates attending the congress to appear on the ballot, which amounted to 69 delegates. Only Kılıçdaroğlu and Özel fulfilled this requirement, and thus appeared on the ballot.

First round

In the first round, Özgür Özel led Kılıçdaroğlu by 18 votes. Since an absolute majority of the delegates were required for the position and Özel was 2 votes short of that, a second round was held afterwards.

Second round

The second round took place on 5 November between 00.30 and 02.30. Özgür Özel would win this round in a landslide, becoming the 8th leader of the Republican People's Party.

Elections for the party organs

On Sunday, 5 November the 60 members of the party council and the 15 members of the party disciplinary comittee were determined.

and Oğuz Kaan Salıcı would create a list of members for the two organs, whereas Kılıçdaroğlu would not create such a list. The amount of votes received by each candidate is shown in parantheses.

= Party council

= Elected directly (52 members)

= Elected through the quota for science, culture and administration (8 members)

Disciplinary comittee (15 members)

References

{{Conventions of the Republican People's Party Ordinary Conventions of the Republican People's Party (Turkey) 2023 elections in Turkey 2023 conferences November 2023 in Turkey 2020s political conferences