Turkiye court adjourns case challenging CHP opposition party’s congress

The postponed proceeding could pb to the removal of Ozgur Ozel, the Republican People’s Party’s chairman.

A tribunal successful Ankara has postponed the proceeding of a arguable lawsuit that could oust the person of Turkiye’s main absorption party, amid protests against the authorities of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

On Monday, the proceeding astir alleged interior irregularities during the Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) 2023 legislature was adjourned until October 24.

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Prosecutors person accused CHP leaders of vote-buying astatine the interior lawsuit successful 2023 successful which Ozgur Ozel was elected chairman, allegations the CHP says are politically motivated.

The lawsuit is the latest successful a agelong enactment of challenges faced by the party.

The Turkish authorities has rejected accusations of governmental interference, insisting the judiciary acts independently.

Officials said the cases against CHP figures stem from corruption charges, which the enactment denied and argued are designed to weaken the opposition.

Turkish authorities person jailed hundreds of CHP members this twelvemonth for alleged corruption, including Erdogan’s main governmental rival, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, who was arrested successful March.

Critics accidental the crackdown is an effort to destabilise Turkiye’s oldest governmental party, which won a ample triumph implicit Erdogan’s AK Party, oregon Justice and Development Party, successful section elections past year.

On Sunday, Ozel told thousands of protesters successful the nationalist superior that the lawsuit was portion of Erdogan’s wider effort to undermine democracy.

“This lawsuit is political, the allegations are slander,” said Ozel, who claimed CHP was experiencing the “grave consequences” of authorities oppression.

“Anyone who poses a antiauthoritarian menace to the authorities is present the government’s target,” helium suggested.

The authorities denies the claim. Erdogan has described the CHP web arsenic corrupt, comparing it with “an octopus whose arms agelong to different parts of Turkiye and abroad”.

Reporting from Ankara, Al Jazeera’s Sinem Koseoglu said the CHP legislature lawsuit had been criticised by ineligible experts.

“Many ineligible experts are against the process because, according to the Turkish laws, immoderate irregularity related to a governmental party’s interior dynamics should beryllium taken attraction of by the higher predetermination board, not by a section board,” Koseoglu noted.

Imamoglu, the CHP’s statesmanlike candidate, besides accused Erdogan and his allies of anti-democratic actions.

“This isn’t astir the CHP, it’s astir the beingness oregon lack of ideology successful Turkiye,” helium said, aft appearing successful tribunal connected Friday successful an unrelated case.

The CHP has had a chequered past with ideology contempt founding modern Turkiye. The CHP pursued authoritarian policies successful the past that suppressed taste and spiritual minorities and it has been a cardinal origin successful however Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) were capable to emergence to powerfulness and clasp it.

There is besides an humanities distrust of the CHP from galore communities who volition proceed to basal with the AKP regardless.

After Imamoglu’s arrest, Turkiye experienced its largest protests successful much than a decade.

In beforehand of the Ankara tribunal ruling, astatine slightest 50,000 radical took portion successful a protestation successful the superior connected Sunday.

Over the weekend, the Turkish authorities arrested 48 much radical arsenic portion of the enquiry into the CHP.

On September 2, a court removed the leadership of the party’s Istanbul subdivision implicit the allegations of vote-buying astatine its provincial congress. The determination was seen by analysts arsenic a trial tally for the legislature lawsuit that was adjourned connected Monday.

Following the ruling earlier this month, Turkiye’s banal marketplace plummeted by 5.5 percent, raising fears astir its already fragile economy.

Source:

Al Jazeera and quality agencies