06 August 2018•Update: 06 August 2018
ANKARA
A deadline for the dissidents of Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) to submit signatures for holding of a congress in a bid to replace current party leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu will expire Monday.
The CHP's rebel members began collecting signatures for an emergency congress on July 16.
According to party bylaws, 50 percent plus 1 signatures from party representatives must be collected for the emergency congress to take place.
The party has a total of 1,242 delegates. In order to able hold the congress, signatures of 622 delegates are needed.
The CHP's "Change and Hope Congress", which would be held only if collected signatures meet the party's required threshold, is expected to discuss the replacement of Kilicdaroglu by none other than the party’s former presidential candidate, Muharrem Ince.
The move comes after opposition figures in the party called for an emergency congress following the party's defeat in the June 24 presidential and parliamentary elections.
Although Ince received only 30.64 percent votes -- over 20 points less than President Recep Tayyip Erdogan -- in the elections, his ability to get 4 million votes had spurred calls for a change in the party.
Meanwhile, some delegates, favoring an emergency congress, staged sit-down protest in front of the CHP headquarters in the capital Ankara.
A statement is expected from the party leadership Monday by 5.30 p.m. local time (1430GMT) when the deadline expires to submit notarized copies of the signatures.
Reporting by Mehmet Tosun:Writing by Diyar Guldogan
