# 2025 Republican People's Party presidential primary

For the first time in Turkish democracy for any political party, the Republican People's Party (CHP), the social democratic main opposition, will hold a partywide primary election to determine the candidate for the 2028 Turkish presidential election. On 11 February, the election was set for 23 March 2025.

## Background

The morning after the 2023 Turkish presidential election, Ekrem İmamoğlu posted a video on his official Twitter account, calling for "change" in CHP and Turkey. On 19 July 2023, a 14-minute part of the Zoom conference between İmamoğlu and other prominent CHP officials, discussing the future strategies of the party, was leaked on YouTube. The meeting was held without the knowledge of the then-CHP leader, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, and it sparked outrage of some factions in the party.
In the meanwhile, Reformists (Turkish: Değişimciler), a speculative group within the CHP that does not approve of Kılıçdaroğlu's leadership, announced a website called "İktidar İçin Değişim", expressing the future strategies for both the CHP and Turkey. The manifesto focused on change in opposition and emphasized democratization, inclusivity, and mass participation in the decision-making process.
The 38th Republican People's Party Ordinary Convention was originally set for summer 2022, but the Party Assembly postponed it to November 2023 in accordance with the national COVID-19 measures. The convention was held on 4–5 November 2023, which was won by Özgür Özel, by first a slight margin, but then a landslide victory in the runoff. Following the change in the office, CHP introduced many changes in its bylaw, including a term limit for MPs, a 50% women and 30% youth quota in internal bodies, wider representation for disabled people, and primaries.

### 2024 Turkish local elections

Under the new leadership, CHP achieved an unexpected victory by defeating Erdoğan's AK Party for the first time in two decades. In addition to mayors, the party also guaranteed majority in the municipal councils of many key cities, such as Istanbul and Ankara. It alleviated the ruling AK Party's obstructions to municipalities already held by CHP.
Days after the local elections, with the refreshed delegates, Ekrem İmamoğlu was elected the President of the Turkish Municipalities Union by a landslide margin, handing over a central government body to CHP for the first time since 1977.

## Nomination process

In accordance with the CHP's recently-introduced Primary Directive (Turkish: Önseçim Yönergesi), commencement of the applications were set for 17 February 2025. The next day, Özgür Özel, at the weekly group meeting, remarked that there is an ongoing "coup attempt" against the "next President of Turkey", favoring Ekrem İmamoğlu through referring to judicial repressions against him, without direct address.
| Candidate | Votes | Signatories |
| Ekrem İmamoğlu | 116/20 | Elvan Işık Gezmiş, Ayça Taşkent, Süleyman Bülbül, Harun Yıldızlı, Mühip Kanko, Nail Çiler, Servet Mullaoğlu, İbrahim Arslan, Serkan Sarı, Ayhan Barut, Sezgin Tanrıkulu, Sibel Suiçmez, İzzet Akbulut, Cavit Arı, Ahmet Baran Yazgan, Nurhayat Kayışoğlu, Ali Gökçek, Ednan Arslan, Yaşar Tüzün Declared eligible: 18 February 2025 |
| Dursun Çiçek | 5/20 | |

### Eligibility for nomination

Registered CHP members who meet the conditions as stated in the Presidential Election Law of 2012 (Turkish: Cumhurbaşkanlığı Seçimi Kanunu) are eligible to attend the primary election. These are as summarized below:
* Turned at least forty years of age,
* Graduate of an accredited higher education institution,
* Possessing of electoral eligibility into the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, as defined by the respective law.

## Voting procedure

Although the official procedure has not been released yet, some details were acknowledged by Özgür Özel on 28 January 2025.
* According to the Court of Cassation, CHP has 1,531,944 registered members of whom are eligible to vote. Furthermore, Özel invited everyone to join the party to participate in the election until 28 February. He later told the media that online registrations were hiked by 10-12 times and local offices will stay open on the weekends to meet the intense attention.
* It is speculated that one must receive signatures of at least 25 MPs to be nominated for the election.

## Candidates
### Declared

Ekrem İmamoğlu ― İmamoğlu is the incumbent Mayor of Istanbul and the President of the Turkish Municipalities Union. On 17 February, though he had not announced the bid yet, dozens of MPs signed for İmamoğlu's candidacy, along with many mayors that endorsed him. Four days later, he signed the official submission to the party headquarters, openly declaring that he is going to run for the primary.
Dursun Çiçek ― Çiçek is a former officer in the Turkish Navy and a former MP from CHP. He first declared his candidacy on a television program, remarking that a democratic election entails to have multiple candidates. He managed to gather 5 of 20 required signatories, though had to withdraw as his wife fell sick.
* Mayor of Istanbul Ekrem İmamoğlu
* Former Member of Parliament Dursun Çiçek

### Declined

* Leader of the Republican People's Party Özgür Özel
* Former Leader of the Republican People's Party Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu
* Mayor of Ankara Mansur Yavaş
* Former Member of Parliament Hurşit Güneş

## Controversies
### Mansur Yavaş candidacy dispute

Though Ekrem İmamoğlu and other "reformists" were pushing for a snap election, Mansur Yavaş insisted that it is "too early" to determine the candidate, and the CHP should instead focus on the poverty. It was speculated that Yavaş, despite the wide public support, as a nationalist who joined CHP later, has no chance against İmamoğlu and thus he hesitated to participate as a defeat could damage his image.
On 9 January 2025, amidst the intense discussions on his position, Yavaş, İmamoğlu, and Özel arranged for a dinner where they convened the dispute. It was later reported that Yavaş will not attend the primary. Though he believed that a primary may cause disorder in the party, and the CHP should determine its candidate through public opinion polls, he refuted the speculations which he later called "black propaganda" that he will run independently. On 11 January, he posted on social media, emphasizing that all are "one and together" for the beautiful days and the restoration of the parliamentary democracy.