November 09, 2015•Update: November 09, 2015
ANKARA
Turkey's Republican People's Party (CHP) lawmaker Muharrem Ince called his party for an extraordinary meeting during a press conference at the Turkish parliament Monday.
"Those who were responsible has to pay the price", he said, in an apparent reference to the result his party got in the snap elections won by the Justice and Development (AK) Party which secured the 49.5 percent of the votes on Nov. 1.
"A new team is needed [to govern the party]. CHP has a credibility problem. A new administration of CHP should be convincing and it should be able to take risks. A new administration has to have the skills for managing extraordinary conditions," Ince said.
Ince also criticized the party's chairman, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who blamed "extraordinary conditions" for the party's "failure".
"CHP has failed in six elections in a row. Who can guarantee that it won't in the seventh? What big change will make CHP succeed in the three big elections to be held in 2019. I don't have hope," he remarked.
When asked if he would run for chair of the party, he said: "The one who receives the enough number of signatures will be candidate. I do not back down. Firstly the party congress has to gather. There are other candidates, I don't want to be unfair to them. I wish them good luck."
CHP received the 25.31 percent of the votes in the snap elections on Nov. 1. Meanwhile, the AK Party received 49.49 percent of the votes in snap polls this month. The ruling party had 40.87 of votes in the elections held in June which was not enough them to come into power.
In a previous CHP congress convention, Ince and Kilicdaroglu competed for the party chief in Sept. 2014 when 740 delegates voted for Kilicdaroglu while Ince received 415 votes.
Kemal Kilicdaroglu has been leading the Republican People's Party since 2010.
