CHP leader denies intention to run for presidency

ANKARA

Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Özgür Özel has stated his intention not to run as a presidential candidate in the upcoming elections, expressing his singular goal of steering the party to power.

"There is only one thing I want: Let's make the CHP the government in these elections and let a CHP member be the president," Özel said during a televised interview on private broadcaster Halk TV on May 31.

Özel confirmed he instructed party members to refrain from engaging in discussions regarding potential presidential candidacies for the elections scheduled for 2028.

Instead, he said, the CHP will focus on its role as a constructive and effective opposition, vowing not to "needlessly occupy public agenda" with speculative debates.

"I have no goal or intention to be a presidential candidate," Özel said.

"I have an intention. If [modern Türkiye and CHP founder Mustafa Kemal] Atatürk's party becomes the first party in the first general election of the second century of the [Turkish] Republic, it means I have achieved the biggest goal in my life."

Moreover, he asserted that failure to attain governmental power in the next elections would prompt his resignation.

"My job is to manage this party well. If I cannot bring the Republican People's Party into power, I will come here that night and resign, I will leave politics that day," he stated.

Previously, Özel had touted the potential candidacy of CHP's Istanbul and Ankara mayors, Ekrem İmamoğlu and Mansur Yavaş, for the presidential position.

“When a penalty is awarded in the last minute, the coach doesn't say ‘let me shoot.' He makes his fittest player take it," he told daily Sabah in early April, referring to mayors as "strikers."

İmamoğlu and Yavaş gained prominence following their local election victories in 2019. In last year's presidential polls, then CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu was the candidate, with İmamoğlu and Yavaş serving as his vice-presidential candidates.

Kılıçdaroğlu lost to incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who secured more than 52 percent of the votes.