site.btaAnkara Court Postpones Opposition Leadership Election Case

The court in Ankara has postponed the case concerning the election of the leadership of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP). The next hearing will be held on October 24, 2025, according to Turkish state television TRT Haber.

Police presence was evident outside the court in Ankara before the start of the hearing, as party members and supporters gathered around the building to follow the proceedings.

The case began after decisions taken at the 38th National Conference of the Republican People's Party on November 4-5, 2023, and at the Extraordinary National Conference on April 6, 2025, were challenged. Behind the lawsuits were delegates close to former chairman Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who are challenging the election of the current leadership and chairman Ozgur Ozel.

The series of lawsuits challenging the legitimacy of the party's leadership could lead to the reversal of a number of its decisions. In early September 2015, the court annulled the decisions of the Istanbul district organization of the Republican People's Party, and a number of analysts saw this as a danger of the party's 38th regular congress also being declared invalid.

If this were to happen, it would mean that the leader of the Republican People's Party, Ozel, had not been legitimately elected. This, in turn, would automatically annul the decisions of the Extraordinary Congress he had convened, as well as his re-election.