Özel urges President Erdogan to call an early election ‘in November at the latest’ amid the largest antigovernment protests in the country in more than a decade.
Özel repeated on Sunday that he will continue to fight to free jailed Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and other mayors charged with engaging in corruption, aiding the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and leading a criminal organization.
He also called for the presidential election scheduled for 2028 to be brought forward to take place “at the latest in November” this year, which he said will see İmamoğlu as the CHP’s presidential candidate.
Convention date moved up
More than 1,300 CHP delegates gathered for the convention to elect the party’s main executive bodies and chairperson.
Özel, the only contender for the chairperson’s position, was backed by the votes of 1,171 delegates and retained his seat.
Al Jazeera’s Sinem Koseoglu, reporting from Ankara, said the convention was originally scheduled for November.
She said the party usually holds such conventions every two years, adding that it was moved up to Sunday to prevent an alleged attempt to appoint a trustee to the party as prosecutors investigate allegations over irregularities.
“The party took an imminent decision to hold this congress,” our correspondent said.
“Given the unrest after İmamoğlu’s arrest, there has been huge support for the opposition … from many segments of society,” she said, adding that the party is making an effort to win over voters in all parts of Turkey.
‘Protests will continue’
In his address, Özel hailed the demonstrations triggered by last month’s arrest of İmamoğlu, who is widely seen as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s greatest political threat, as “the greatest motion of censure in history”.
He called on all CHP members, its delegates, and other executives to stay united and continue the political struggle in all possible venues.
“We will continue our rallies and protests in the coming days,” he said. “Every weekend, we will be in a provincial city, and every Wednesday, we will hold night rallies in one of Istanbul’s districts. We are starting from Samsun next week.”
In the days following İmamoğlu’s arrest, the CHP drew tens of thousands of protesters in Istanbul and many other cities to denounce the government’s move.
Erdogan has denied that the charges against İmamoğlu are politically motivated. He has previously accused İmamoğlu of being a pawn of foreign interests.
The president has called the current wave of protests “a movement of violence” and accused CHP leaders of “shielding those who attack police with stones and axes,” pointing to more than 100 police officers injured so far in the rallies.
In response, Turkey has clamped down on the protests. Authorities have detained nearly 2,000 people.
Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunc has defended the independence of the judiciary against accusations of political bias, saying Erdogan did not influence İmamoğlu’s arrest.
