The hearing into alleged vote rigging by leaders of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP)—has been adjourned by an Ankara court on Monday, September 15th.
CHP is battling a growing array of legal challenges many believe are part of the lawfare waged against it.
On the eve of the case, vast crowds of protesters packed into Ankara’s Tandogan Square in a huge show of defiance over the move which the CHP has denounced as a “political coup.”
Critics say the vote-buying case is a politically motivated attempt to undermine Turkey’s oldest political party, which won a huge victory over President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s AKP in the 2024 local elections and has been rising in the polls. The CHP denies the charges and has accused the government of trying to defang it as an opposition force.
Early on Monday, September 15th, a heavy police deployment outside Ankara’s Diskapa courthouse saw armed police at the entrance, with hundreds more riot police waiting in buses parked nearby, AFP reported.
The case seeks to overturn the result of a CHP congress in November 2023 on grounds of vote rigging. The congress ousted longtime party chairman Kemal Kiliçdaroğlu and elected current leader Özgür Özel.
“This case is political, the allegations are slander. This is a coup (and) we will resist,” roared Özel in a rousing address to the sea of flag-waving supporters packed into the square on Sunday.
“We are facing the grave consequences of Turkey’s government abandoning the ‛democracy train’ and choosing to govern through oppression rather than the ballot box,” he declared, adding“
Anyone who poses a democratic threat to the government is now the government’s target.
On September 2nd, a court ousted the leadership of the CHP’s Istanbul branch over allegations of vote-buying at its provincial congress, appointing a trustee to take over in a move widely seen as a test run for Monday’s case.
