Good Party gradually unraveling with series of resignations

Fuente: 
Daily Sabah
Fecha de publicación: 
30 Mayo 2018

With less than a month remaining for the presidential and parliamentary elections, resignations continue to plague the newly established Good Party (İP). Most recently, the founding member and general board member of the İP, Ruhat Mengi, resigned from her duties, blaming the party of being different than it is being portrayed

The far-right Good Party (İP) has started to unravel with a series of frustrated resignations ahead of the June 24 parliamentary and presidential elections. The latest of the resignations came earlier this week as founding member and general board member of the İP, Ruhat Mengi, resigned from her duties. A former journalist, Mengi said on Monday that she would not be able to hide her resignation from others for a long time. While resigning from the party, Mengi lashed out at the İP, saying that things are not how they seem at the party.

Speaking to Turkish media yesterday, she said she realized that the party is not actually how it was portrayed at the event where the İP's program was introduced.

The founding member of the İP also criticized the party due to the dominance of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). She claimed that MHP Chairman Devlet Bahçeli is disliked but nobody from the İP criticizes him.

Stressing that the whole party stems from the MHP except for her and a couple more, Mengi said such structure bothered others as well.

Mengi is only one of the founding members of the İP to have resigned from the party. Malatya provincial head of the İP, also a founding member, Sezai Altaş also resigned on Monday. Altaş expressed grave concern regarding the deputy candidate list of the İP.

Also last week, 14 people submitted their resignation in Uşak province. The 14 founding members in the western province said in a written statement, "We have realized that the administration style, decision-making mechanisms and administrative mentality of the party are not different from the superior will and oligarchic administrative style that we have criticized so far."

The İP's Niğde administration was affected by the intraparty unease, too. Naim Osman Erem, who was placed second on the deputy candidate list of the İP, said he resigned last week. Shortly after Erem's resignation, İP Bingol deputy candidate Abdurrahim Ariç submitted his resignation.

As the newly-established İP is struggling to cope with the mounting number of resignations, the party was also recently rattled with the crisis of Yusuf Halaçoğlu. One of the five İP members in Parliament, Yusuf Halaçoğlu, complained about his party's failure to nominate him last week.

"I asked to be nominated for İzmir or Ankara because my wife was assigned to work in İzmir and we have two small children," he said, declining to run in his hometown of Kayseri.

However, his request was rejected. İP Chairwoman Meral Akşener said at a rally that his request was not deemed appropriate.

Yet, Halaçoğlu is not the only resentful figure. The founder of the party's youth branch, Osman Ertürk Özel, who became one of the İP's most public faces in recent months, announced his withdrawal as his party's parliamentary nominee on his Twitter account.

He was reported to be unhappy to be nominated in fifth place from İzmir, which will most certainly prevent him from winning a parliamentary seat.

The İP and the secularist center-left Republican People's Party (CHP) formed the Nation Alliance with the Felicity Party (SP) and the Democrat Party (DP) and will enter the parliamentary elections in the same election block. The founder of the İP, Akşener, is running for president, without any alliances with other parties.

Founded last October, the İP has gathered many dissidents from the MHP. Akşener herself was one of the leading dissidents against the MHP's chairman in 2016. The intraparty clashes ended after the dissidents were dismissed from the party after a long judicial process.

Daily Sabah

https://www.dailysabah.com/politics/2018/05/30/good-party-gradually-unra...