Turkey: Central executive council of main opposition resign

The entire central executive council of main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) submitted their resignation on Thursday at a party meeting, held for the evaluation of election results, Duvar's Serkan Alan reported.

CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu accepted the resignations of council members.

The new council are expected to be appointed after a meeting of the Party Assembly on Saturday and half of the council is likely to be replaced with new members, Alan said, citing senior party officials.

The decision for the date of the party congress will be taken by the new council, and the congress may take place on time in summer, officials added.

It was also resolved at the meeting that the members of the Party Assembly and branch officials in districts and provinces should also be subjected to a reshuffling.

Kilicdaroglu, who met with Istanbul branch chairwoman Canan Kaftancioglu before the meeting, is expected to have a meeting this evening with Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, one of the strongest potential candidates for the party leadership.

Both Kilicdaroglu and CHP suffered a defeat against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) at the elections. While AKP lost a significant voter base on 14 May compared to 2018, it still led by a margin of 10 points, with CHP receiving 25% of the votes.

Erdogan won by a margin of four points against Kilicdaroglu in the presidential race, despite very serious economic woes Turkey has been facing in the last couple of years.