Berhan Şimşek, a former lawmaker for the Republican People’s Party (CHP), told reporters that his challenge to the party’s current leader Özgür Özel was not accepted because of a “five-minute delay in his application.”
Şimşek was the only other candidate for the top seat of the main opposition party, which held an extraordinary election on Sunday in the capital Ankara. The organizing committee of the election declared Özel the only candidate prior to the vote, while a CHP mayor had declared his withdrawal from the race earlier for unspecified reasons.
He was seen in a heated argument with Özel at the venue of the election before the voting began. The footage from the party’s congress/intraparty election showed Özel trying to calm down Şimşek.
Posting on social media later, Şimşek said the party unfairly blocked his bid to compete in the chairperson race. “I had 97 signatures (far ahead of the 66 signatures by CHP delegates for eligibility for candidacy), but they accelerated the process. In the previous election, candidates were allowed to present signatures four hours after the start of the process, but this time, they annulled my bid because of a five-minute delay,” he was quoted by Turkish media. “The CHP is not a company owned by certain people. It is up to the Turkish public to decide (on the fairness of the process),” he said.
Şimşek has been a longtime critic of the Özel administration and hit out at them earlier this week as he announced his candidacy. He said the CHP deviated from its political path and could not tolerate any dissent. He stated in a series of social media posts that the Özel administration stained the party’s identity and “spirit of struggle” while engaging in “normalization” with the ruling party.