Once a trusted partner is turning traitor for Turkish opposition’s increasingly divided Good Party (IP) as deputies riot against Chair Meral Akşener’s administration’s refusal to join an alliance for next March's high-stakes local elections.
Dozens of lawmakers, having allegedly secured certain promises from the Republican People's Party’s (CHP) popular Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu, are mobilizing under what they call a “Better Group,” meant to be a play on the party’s Turkish name.
The IP has been faltering with back-to-back scandals, accusations of corruption and infighting since the six-party opposition bloc lost to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s governing coalition in May’s presidential and parliamentary elections.
Akşener pulled her party out of the alliance and blamed the CHP for the poor showing in legislative polls.
After ousting long-standing chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu with Imamoğlu’s strong support, newly elected and relatively untested Özgür Özel mounted a furious effort to win the Good Party back on their side but the IP rejected the call earlier this month.
The party’s insistence on competing alone in March 2024 local polls has since been pushing deputies, including founding members, away in droves, who believe the IP has very little chance to haul in any significant constituencies in the mayoral election.
Akşener in the past week alone lost two of her aides and closest deputy chairs, who have argued the refusal to team up with CHP, particularly in Istanbul and Ankara, was going against the popular opinion among party ranks.
She even faced a minor coup on Wednesday when her deputies voted back in his post a member of the Istanbul municipality council whom she forced to resign a day before.
On Friday, Istanbul lawmaker, Salim Ensarioğlu, who helped found IP and served on its executive board until May, also announced his resignation from the party. He had been referred to the disciplinary board for his remarks over a historical Kurdish figure earlier this week.
Late Thursday, the CHP confirmed Imamoğlu and incumbent Mansur Yavaş would run for reelection next year.
The pair took the two key cities from Erdoğan’s governing Justice and Development Party (AK Party) for the first time in over two decades in the 2019 polls with support from IP, as well as the pro-PKK Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM), the unofficial name for the Green Left Party (YSP).
Imamoğlu, particularly, became an opposition darling after winning Istanbul in a hugely controversial rerun but he has since lost some of his luster and is currently facing the threat of being barred from politics in an ongoing lawsuit over insulting a public official.
His popularity in the past four years has threatened ex-CHP leader Kılıçdaroğlu, as well, so much so that Akşener herself had called on him to step up and run against Erdoğan ahead of this year’s presidential faceoff.
While Imamoğlu turned her away then, he has since helped oust Kılıçdaroğlu and is now throwing curveballs into the Good Party.
Despite refreshed leadership, CHP’s odds are grim in the upcoming vote as the party’s consecutive losses and internal fractions have eroded its public credibility. Losing its allies who plan to air challengers against CHP mayors, which would split the vote in ethnically mixed cities, is not helping either.
Sources close to the IP have told local media the Istanbul mayor has been making promises to IP’s district chairs, excluding six, who have all changed sides with the intention to campaign for Imamoğlu.
Imamoğlu’s offensive has been likened to the charge he led before the intraparty election in CHP last month when he managed to persuade hundreds of deputies to vote against Kılıçdaroğlu at the last minute.
Özel, often called a puppet of Imamoğlu, knocked at DEM’s door last week to test the waters for whether they would reconsider an alliance. However, statements from the party’s co-chairs have been sour, with Tuncer Bakırhan saying: “They see us as a backup generator. They only remember us when it’s time for an election.”
Also on Thursday, the AK Party announced it would nominate joint mayoral candidates with long-time partner Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) come March.
The party has been zeroed in on recapturing Ankara and Istanbul, renewing its cadres, replacing 52 provincial chairs, parting ways with stalwart figures and running public satisfaction surveys.
Following Erdoğan’s approval, the party will begin announcing its candidates in the following weeks.
Some 64 million eligible voters are going back to the polls on March 31, 2024.
The campaigning period is set to kick off with the new year.
