Case piles pressure on Turkiye

A COURT hearing that could upend the leadership of Turkiye’s main opposition CHP is the latest bid to hobble the party behind a wave of spring protests that shook the government, analysts say.

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The hearing, which takes place today at an Ankara court, could render null and void the result of a leadership primary within the Republican People’s Party (CHP) in November 2023 on grounds of alleged fraud - thereby overturning the election of leader Ozgur Ozel.

In February, the Ankara public prosecutor opened an investigation into allegations of vote buying at the congress which resulted in Ozel defeating long-time incumbent Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

The CHP has denied the allegations.

The outcome could see several CHP figures - including jailed Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu ~ facing up to three years in prison and a political ban for graft, Turkish media reported.

And if the election result is cancelled, the party leadership would almost certainly revert to 76-year-old Kilicdaroglu.

He was ousted five months after losing a bitterly fought presidential campaign against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that was widely seen as the most important vote in generations, leaving the party in crisis.

“This is a bid to reshape the CHP and create an opposition that is controlled by a government which is becoming more and more authoritarian,” Berk Esen, a political science expert at Istanbul's Sabanci University, said.