Turkey: Özel re-elected as CHP leader
Turkey's main opposition party CHP re-elected Özgur Özel as its chairman at an extraordinary party convention on Sunday, in reaction to fears that the authorities could appoint a trustee to head the party instead. The public prosecutor's office launched an investigation into alleged irregularities and vote-buying in Özel's first election in 2023.
Don't waste this leap of faith
Now the real test begins for the opposition, Habertürk comments:
“The wave of popular support that has been building since the last local elections has been eyeing this convention with high expectations. Because the voters have given a clear signal - not to the government, but to the opposition: We are putting our trust in you once more but do things differently this time.' ... Today the CHP and the opposition have a clear responsibility: it's time to turn the voters' trust and the cohesion that has emerged from basic solidarity into a project of genuine transformation.”
Panic convention
The current opposition leader will fail just as his predecessor Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu did, the pro-government Star comments:
“Özgür Özel won the election as the only candidate at a convention which could be dubbed 'the 1st CHP Panic Convention'. ... Özel, who is following in the footsteps of the former chairman, is making threats against the judiciary. At yesterday's '1st CHP Panic Convention' he very rudely called President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan a 'putschist'. ... Özel is on the wrong path and he will suffer a fate even worse than that of his predecessor Kılıçdaroğlu.”