| Election Name: | 2014 Republican People's Party leadership election |
| Flag Image: | Flag of the Republican People's Party (Turkey).svg |
| Type: | convention |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Previous Election: | 33rd Republican People's Party Ordinary Convention |
| Previous Year: | 2012 |
| Election Date: | 5–6 September 2014 |
| Next Election: | 35th Republican People's Party Ordinary Convention |
| Next Year: | 2016 |
| Seats For Election: | All 1,218 delegates of the Republican People's Party |
| Turnout: | 94.83% |
| 1Blank: | Constituency |
| 4Blank: | Delegate vote |
| 5Blank: | Percentage |
| Image1: | Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu Nov 15 (cropped).jpg |
| Image1 Size: | 200x190px |
| Candidate1: | Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu |
| 1Data1: | Istanbul |
| Colour1: | D70000 |
| Party1: | Republican People's Party |
| 4Data1: | 740 |
| 5Data1: | 64.07% |
| Image2 Size: | 200x190px |
| Candidate2: | Muharrem İnce |
| 1Data2: | Yalova |
| Colour2: | D70000 |
| Party2: | Republican People's Party |
| 4Data2: | 415 |
| 5Data2: | 35.93% |
| Map Size: | 350px |
| Leader | |
| Before Election: | Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu |
| Before Party: | Republican People's Party |
| After Election: | Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu |
| After Party: | Republican People's Party |
The 18th Republican People's Party Extraordinary Convention (Turkish: 18. CHP Olağanüstü Kurultayı) took place on 5 and 6 September 2014 in order to elect a leader of the Republican People's Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi - CHP), a Turkish centre-left political party. Initially, an ordinary convention was due to be held in 2014, two years after the previous one in 2012. However, the party's incumbent leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu accepted calls for an extraordinary convention to be held following the loss of the CHP's presidential candidate Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu in the presidential election held in August. The ordinary convention will thus be held in 2015 instead.[1]
The result was a victory for incumbent leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who was re-elected with 64.1% of the delegates' votes. He had initially been nominated for the leadership with the signatures of 944 delegates (84.2%). His rival Muharrem İnce congratulated Kılıçdaroğlu and conceded defeat.[2]
CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu announced that his party would support Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu's candidacy for the presidency, claiming further that he himself had thought of İhsanoğlu as an adequate candidate. Besides the controversy over İhsanoğlu's alleged lack of secular credentials, Kılıçdaroğlu drew criticism for not consulting MPs on his choice of candidate. When İhsanoğlu came a distant second with 38.44% of the vote in the presidential election, several MPs within the CHP voiced opposition to Kılıçdaroğlu's choice of candidate and called for an extraordinary convention to be held before the June 2015 general election.[3] Such MPs included Emine Ülker Tarhan, Muharrem İnce and Süheyl Batum, with İnce claiming that former CHP leader Deniz Baykal also supported his opposition to Kılıçdaroğlu.[4] [5] [6] [7] Initially, Kılıçdaroğlu expressed regret for bringing the rebellious MPs into the party, accusing them of not helping in the presidential campaign and thus contributing to rival candidate Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's victory in the first round.[8] Regardless, Kılıçdaroğlu and the CHP Youth Wing both accepted the notion to hold an extraordinary convention with a leadership election in September 2014, nullifying the need to obtain signatures before any convention can be proposed.[9]
The convention is expected to take 3 days, either between 9–11 September or 14–17 September.[10]
78 of 81 province heads of CHP except Yalova, Düzce and Isparta expressed their support to Kılıçdaroğlu.[11]
| Candidate | Signatures | Percentage | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu | 944 | 84.21 | Nominated | |
| Muharrem İnce | 177 | 15.79 | Nominated | |
| Şahmar Dalmış | 0 | 0.00 | Eliminated | |
| 1,121 | 100.0 | 2 candidates | ||
| align=left colspan=5 | Source: Sabah |
Metin Feyzioğlu, who currently serves as the President of the Turkish Bars Association, stated that he would not be a candidate for the CHP leadership on 16 August.[17] Feyizoğlu had become famous for his opposition to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan when the two publicly quarrelled at the State Council's 146th anniversary ceremony.[18] In late August 2014, Feyizoğlu stated that he did not regard the convention as democratic due to being held at such short notice and claimed that he would have been a candidate had the convention met "democratic standards".[19]
Although normal CHP members or supporters could not vote, opinion polls were conducted to gauge voter's preferences before the convention.
| Date | Pollster | Sample | Others | Lead | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 2014 | Konsensus[20] | 10,500 | 31 | 59 | 10 | |
| Aug 2014 | ORC[21] | 1,250 | 38.8 | 40.0 | 9.5 | |
| Date | Pollster | Sample | Lead | |||
| Others |
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu | 740 | 64.1 | |||
| 415 | 35.9 | ||||
| Invalid/blank votes | 26 | – | |||
| Total | 1,181 | 100.0 | |||
| Number of delegates/turnout | 1,218 | 94.8 | |||