CHP Headquarters Tells Provincial Leaders Not to Replace Vacant Committee Seats with Members of Other Parties

The centrally appointed leadership at Turkey’s Republican People’s Party, or CHP, has instructed all 81 provincial leaders not to allow other parties to take committee seats vacated by CHP municipal council members.

The warning concerns specialist committees within municipal councils. A letter from CHP headquarters cited Article 21 of the Municipal Council Working Regulation and said a committee member’s seat ends if the member resigns from the political party to which they belong.

According to the instruction, the remainder of the term must be completed by a new member from the same party. If a CHP municipal council member resigns and leaves a vacancy in a committee’s CHP allocation, the replacement should therefore be chosen from among CHP municipal council members rather than from another political party.

Provincial and district party organizations were told to closely follow committee-member elections. The letter instructed them to submit the necessary legal and administrative applications without delay if another party fills a vacancy allocated to the CHP in a manner that violates the regulation.

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For a committee membership that becomes vacant due to resignation, a new member from the same political party must be elected to complete the remainder of the term.