Nation Alliance politicians in fresh row over contribution to CHP vote in general election

Duvar English

Democratic Party (DP) MP Cemal Enginyurt on June 30 asserted that the Republican People's Party (CHP) obtained its votes from its own supporters, while the 39 MPs from smaller parties within the Nation Alliance who secured seats in parliament through CHP's lists owe a debt to the CHP.

Without explicitly giving names, Enginyurt criticized Felicty Party chair Temel Karamollaoğlu, who argued that 7-8 percent of CHP's votes came from other parties, and DEVA Party chair Ali Babacan, who said, "We don't owe anyone." 

Enginyurt stated, “CHP received 22 percent in 2018, and 4-5 million young voters have come since then. Despite this, it is absurd to say that I have the 7-8 percent votes in the 25 percent that the CHP received.” He added that the CHP would have gotten 25 percent with or without an alliance. 

CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu established an electoral and political alliance, Table of Six, also known as Nation Alliance, consisting six opposition parties.

In the parliamentary elections, the CHP received 25.41 percent of the votes, falling short of expectations, ending up having 169 seats in the parliament out of 600 while leaving the majority to the ruling alliance. 38 deputies out of 169 were from other alliance parties, initiating the criticisms against Kılıçdaroğlu for allocating “too many” seats for “small” and “ineffective” parties.

Compared to the 2018 elections, the CHP's official vote share increased by nearly three percentage and the number of parliamentary seats increased by 23. However, since other parties MPs left the CHP, the party’s number of seats decreased to 130 which is less than the previous term (146).