27 June 2016•Update: 29 June 2016
By Aylin Sirikli
ANKARA
A local election board said Monday that the opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) cannot hold an extraordinary congress -- possibly seeing a leadership fight -- until a local court can weigh in.
The Cankaya Election Board in the capital Ankara said no congress would be held until a court rules on a June 19 congress where dissident MHP members passed changes to the party bylaws banning leadership elections at extraordinary congresses. The party leadership says the rules changes were illegal and thus null and void.
The MHP headquarters said an extraordinary congress would be held on July 10, while the dissidents behind the June 19 congress decided that a leadership vote would be held at the same congress.
Musavat Dervisoglu, head of the extraordinary meeting committee, asked Turkey’s Supreme Board of Elections (YSK) who would hold the congress on July 10.
The YSK said that the decision was up to the local election board.
The MHP has to wait until an Ankara court decides whether the June 19 congress was valid or not.
The dissidents have been fighting to remove Chairman Devlet Bahceli, who has led the party for nearly 30 years, following the party’s poor showing in last November’s general election.
The 12th Ankara Civil Court of Peace court decided in April to appoint trustees to the party and send them to a congress, as party dissidents gathered enough delegate signatures to convene an extraordinary congress.
Party officials appealed the verdict, and police prevented a dissident-led congress in the capital on May 15 amid conflicting court rulings.
On May 24, Turkey’s Supreme Court upheld an Ankara civil court decision greenlighting the June 19 congress.
* Anadolu Agency correspondent Handan Kazanci contributed to this report from Istanbul.
