An investigation into vote-buying allegations in an intraparty election of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) in 2023 nears conclusion. Prosecutors readied an indictment according to a Sabah newspaper report and target 124 suspects, including nine incumbent lawmakers of Türkiye’s oldest party. Prosecutors sent an appeal to Parliament about the case. If found guilty, suspected lawmakers can be imprisoned once their legislative term ends and they lose immunity.
Incumbent chair Özgür Özel replaced stalwart Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu in the 2023 election as head of the main opposition, but media reports dubbed the election “shady” as several former members of the party claimed widespread vote-buying. Acting upon claims, prosecutors launched an investigation that is now being conducted by several delegates who voted at the election. Sabah newspaper’s report says former Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu, an influential figure in the party, was among the main actors in vote-buying allegations, and prosecutors were now investigating the source of millions of Turkish liras allegedly used to buy votes of delegates. Imamoğlu was arrested in March for a separate corruption case related to his tenure as mayor. He will be questioned by prosecutors investigating the vote-buying.
Eyewitness accounts in the case show that some $50 million obtained from four foreign exchange offices in Istanbul were transported to Ankara, where the election was held, allegedly to buy votes. Media reports say investigators were examining security camera footage and hard drives of computers in the party’s offices to track down the money flow. Reports by a financial crimes investigation board also discovered unusual cash transfers to delegates, members of the CHP and several journalists linked to the party. Additionally, pro-CHP journalists Şaban Sevinç and Ismail Saymaz are among the suspects accused of spreading disinformation to influence votes in favor of Özel, according to the Sabah report. Investigators are also probing social media accounts of journalists spreading the fake news that Özel’s predecessor, Kılıçdaroğlu, would withdraw from the 2023 race.
Allegations by Lütfü Savaş, who served as mayor of the southern province of Hatay and was expelled from his party last year, point to vote buying.
In his petition to the court for a lawsuit, Savaş said he talked to many delegates after the Chief Prosecutor’s Office in the capital, Ankara, launched the investigation. The investigation originally began in the northwestern province of Bursa, where complaints from a CHP member were made last year before it was handed over to prosecutors in Ankara, where the party’s headquarters are located. Savaş said delegates affirmed that the incumbent administration of the CHP and officials in its local branches pressured voting delegates to vote in favor of Özel. “It is obvious in allegations on social media and news reports that some delegates were handed houses and cars, some were delivered suitcases full of U.S. dollars, while others were delivered smartphones and tablet computers in exchange for votes. Others were promised jobs in CHP-run municipalities and were employed in those municipalities later,” the petition says. It points out, in particular, the employment of voting delegates and their next of kin in the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB).
Savaş said examining documents related to the election would expose how the will of hundreds of delegates was “changed” through bribery. “The current chair won the election with 18 more votes than the other candidate in the two-candidate election. It is clear that the other candidate would have won if the will of delegates was not corrupted,” the petition said. It calls for the election to be canceled and the incumbent administration of the CHP to be suspended.
Some delegates were paid sums ranging from $5,000 to $30,000, former CHP delegate Erkan Çakır told Sabah in February. It was Imamoğlu who paid them to force at least 150 delegates to switch sides against Kılıçdaroğlu, Çakır alleged. He said the delegates said they would pay the money back, but didn’t. “We managed the whole congress with the ‘change crew,’” Çakır said, referring to a subgroup in CHP led by Özel and Imamoğlu who championed for “change” after Kılıçdaroğlu lost back-to-back presidential elections to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during his tenure. “That election win was Kılıçdaroğlu’s right,” Çakır said. “Özel is sitting on that chair thanks to Imamoğlu’s money.”