ISTANBUL (Reuters) -A Turkish court on Tuesday ousted the Istanbul provincial head of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) over irregularities, in the latest judicial blow to opponents of President Tayyip Erdogan.
The Istanbul court ruled that the votes of delegates in a 2023 CHP Istanbul provincial congress were influenced by cash payments, and thus the board members elected at the congress should be removed.
Former CHP deputy chair Gursel Tekin was appointed as the interim provincial head by the court, whose ruling hit Turkish stocks.
The Istanbul court’s ruling could have implications for another court case, in Ankara, that could oust the CHP leader Ozgur Ozel. In that lawsuit, for which the next hearing is Sept. 15, results of the party’s 38th Ordinary Congress in 2023 could be overturned over procedural irregularities.
It was at that congress that Ozel replaced Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who lost to Erdogan in presidential elections earlier that year.
Tuesday’s ruling came amid an unprecedented crackdown on Turkey’s main opposition in which 15 mayors, including Erdogan’s main rival Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, have been detained.
After the Istanbul court’s ruling, shares in the main BIST 100 were down 5.4%, with the banking index off 7.5%.
(Reporting by Huseyin Hayatsever; Editing by Jonathan Spicer)
Comments