Ankara court annuls CHP leadership election, orders interim leader

An Ankara court on Thursday annulled the 2023 leadership election of Turkey’s main opposition CHP party, state news agency Anadolu reported, in a sharp escalation against the country’s embattled opposition.

The ruling overturns the result of the leadership election that brought in current party head Ozgur Ozel and ordered that the party’s former long-term chairman, Kemal Kilicdaroglu – who lost the election to Ozel – take over as interim leader.

In response, the party urged its senior membership to gather at its Ankara headquarters.

The news prompted Istanbul’s BIST 100, Turkey’s main stock exchange, to fall by more than six per cent.

The case concerns allegations of vote buying at the CHP congress in November 2023, with prosecutors alleging that Ozel secured his own election through putting pressure on certain delegates with promises of jobs and other kickbacks.

In October, an Ankara court had thrown out an earlier vote buying case over that election on grounds that it had no substance, but prosecutors appealed the ruling, with the court finding in their favour.

Critics say the vote-buying case is a politically motivated attempt to undermine Turkey’s oldest political party, which won a huge victory over President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AKP in 2024 local elections and has been rising in the polls.