 38th Ordinary Congress, where Özgür Özel was elected party chairman in November 2023, following allegations of vote-buying, in a move seen as part of a broader pattern of judicial interventions favoring President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his political allies.){kind=link}
Ankara prosecutors have launched an investigation of the main opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) 38th Ordinary Congress, where Özgür Özel was elected party chairman in November 2023, following allegations of vote-buying, in a move seen as part of a broader pattern of judicial interventions favoring President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his political allies.
The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office announced the probe after an initial complaint was filed with the Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office alleging that delegates were offered cash and other incentives to vote in the party’s leadership election in favor of Özel.
The Bursa prosecutors transferred the case to Ankara, citing a lack of jurisdiction, leading to the formal launch of an inquiry in January 2024. The investigation gained national attention after former CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and former CHP parliamentary group leader Akif Hamzaçebi were summoned as witnesses.
Erdoğan’s remarks and political timing of the probe
The investigation comes shortly after President Erdoğan publicly described the CHP’s congress as “tainted” during a speech at the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) provincial congress in Manisa on February 1. Erdoğan claimed that the main opposition party orchestrated the removal of Kılıçdaroğlu through “a fraudulent congress” following his electoral defeat in the May 2023 presidential election.
Kılıçdaroğlu, who lost to Özel in a runoff vote during the party congress, responded by criticizing the new CHP leadership for failing to refute Erdoğan’s claims. Speaking to KRT TV on Friday, he said, “Either they must openly deny these allegations since silence implies acknowledgment. If there was any wrongdoing, the party must cleanse itself of corruption.” Despite being called to testify, Kılıçdaroğlu’s lawyer, Celal Çelik, announced that the former leader would not appear before prosecutors.
Özel, the current CHP chairman, dismissed Erdoğan’s remarks as an attempt to destabilize the opposition. “If we were to respond to every attempt by Erdoğan to interfere in opposition affairs, we would spend all our time doing that,” he said.
The timing of the judicial move has further fueled speculation of political interference. The announcement of the investigation coincided with a crucial meeting of the CHP Party Assembly on February 10, where the party was set to discuss its strategy for selecting a candidate in the next presidential election, scheduled for 2028. The night before, Özel held a dinner meeting with İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavaş, two key figures considered leading contenders for the opposition’s future presidential nominee.
Judiciary’s history of favoring Erdoğan and his allies
The latest investigation fits into a broader pattern of Turkish courts intervening in opposition politics, often in ways that benefit Erdoğan and his allies. In 2017 Turkish courts effectively shut down a leadership challenge within the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), led by Erdoğan ally Devlet Bahçeli.
At the time, the MHP’s internal opposition — led by Meral Akşener, Koray Aydın and Sinan Oğan — had gathered enough signatures from party delegates to force an extraordinary congress aimed at challenging Bahçeli’s leadership. However, the courts sided with Bahçeli’s faction, ruling in June 2017 that a congress organized by opposition delegates was invalid. The decision effectively quashed the leadership challenge, and Akşener later founded the İYİ (Good) Party as an alternative nationalist opposition force.
Critics argue that the judiciary’s intervention in the MHP’s internal affairs paved the way for Bahçeli’s subsequent alliance with Erdoğan. That alliance has since played a crucial role in Erdoğan’s consolidation of power, particularly in shifting Turkey to a presidential system of governance through a 2017 constitutional referendum.
Now, opposition members fear that the judiciary is again being used to reshape the political landscape — this time within the CHP, the country’s largest opposition party. Some CHP insiders see the investigation as an attempt to sow division within the party and prevent a strong opposition front.
Could the congress results be annulled?
While Ankara prosecutors have yet to announce formal charges, the case could potentially lead to the annulment of CHP’s 38th Congress results. The burden of proof will be on prosecutors to demonstrate that Kılıçdaroğlu’s loss was directly influenced by financial inducements.
At the congress held November 4-5, 2023, Özel won with 682 delegate votes in the first round against Kılıçdaroğlu’s 664 votes. In the second round, Özel secured 812 votes — 60 percent of the delegates — while Kılıçdaroğlu’s votes dropped to 536. The significant shift in votes between the two rounds has fueled speculation about whether external factors influenced the outcome.
CHP executives and opposition figures have strongly criticized the investigation, calling it an attempt to undermine the party’s autonomy. CHP parliamentary group chairman Ali Mahir Başarır denounced the probe as an attack on democracy, stating, “The Republican People’s Party founded this republic. No one has the right to question the democratic will of our party delegates.”
Critics point out that the government has long used the judiciary to suppress dissent, citing previous politically charged cases against opposition figures, including jailed Kurdish leader Selahattin Demirtaş and İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, who was convicted on politically motivated charges in 2022, a case currently under review by an appeals court.