New Party Chairman Özgür Özel participated in his party's Karesi District Presidency primary election in Balıkesir. Speaking here, Özel said, "Today, in this hall, we have come to experience a special day on behalf of our party, on behalf of the democracy of our country, and to realize a new beginning together. When we were establishing our party, we made a promise to our nation. We said, 'We will leave the old behind. We will implement a new politics, a new generation of politics. We will change the operating system of politics.' We said, 'Come to the New Party, there is no old or senior in the New Party, we are all new. We are all equal. 'We all have equal say, we all have equal power.' In the process that started yesterday morning in Gaziemir, Izmir, and then I attended the ceremony in Bornova, the election in Bornova, and then I cast my vote in my own district, Yunusemre, today we are together here in Balıkesir to elect our district president, not with the delegate system, but with the votes of everyone who came to the New Party and became a member. "Welcome all of you," he said.
'THE ROAD IS OPEN FOR EVERYONE WHO COMES TO POLITICS IN THE NEW PARTY'
"We are trying something new and something that is much desired but not dared to do. I said, 'I have my eyes on all corners of Turkey,'" said Özel and continued his speech as follows:
"Yesterday, we looked at our 174 districts with a high number of members. Primary elections were held in 174 districts. There was a suspicion, 'Is it a show business?'. We saw that 92 of the 174 districts ran with a single candidate, while 82 had multiple races. Yesterday, 82 of our friends competed. In 42 of them, the current president continued. In 40 of them, the candidate they competed with won. What does this show? Normally, there is a more intense candidacy and competition compared to the delegate system. Normally, it is the choice of the members, not the current president, but the person and system who have emerged, collected their signatures and made their claims. This is the new understanding of the New Party.
'WE WILL WRITE ABOUT THE ADMINISTRATION THAT WAS MARCHING TO POWER'
Özel said, "But we will not leave this matter in this hall. In other words, we will not leave your involvement in politics in this hall. In Turkey today, our elected candidates, whether they are multiple races, the only candidate on whom there is an agreement, or the candidates against whom no claims are made, will be elected only as the district president. If there is a double race for the next week, the candidate who wins this double race will put forward a list of candidates who receive more votes. He will not have his own list selected and the loser left out of the administration and a list approved, contrary to what we all regret. The list "We will write an administration that sees the sociology of the district, sees the needs of the district, ensures that everyone in the district is represented, and especially this administration will enter this party's first election and this administration will have held the only congress of this party in opposition, with a 7-page directive that we sent to our winning candidate, our provincial chairman, our MPs, our party council members if any, our previous term administrators, and to them. Let no one forget that we established the New Party not to have a party, but to have power."
'WE ARE NEW, LET EVERYONE BEHIND BE LEFT BEHIND'
Emphasizing that the New Party was named by the nation, its budget was created by the nation, the compass is in the hands of the nation, the target is set by the nation and it is a new party that marches towards the goal of power, Özel said, "Therefore, to those who held a district congress with thousands of people in the early hours of a Sunday morning; leave the old politics behind, leave the obsolete politics behind, leave behind those who laid the wreaths with thousands and tens of thousands of people in the past, with 10-12 people. Now, the agenda of that bygone politics and the so-called defenders of that bygone politics are called New." "Leave behind the efforts to discuss the Party, to talk to the New Party, to exist as if we are equals. We are new, let those who are left behind be left behind. We know what I am describing, who I am talking about, why and who we are talking about, and essentially what our goal is. The New Party is the party of those who have their own goals, who have high self-confidence, who own almost all of the whole, and who are connected to each other not by relations of interest, but by the law of brotherhood."
