YENİ Party holds its first congress: Özel is sole candidate, 150-member Party Council to be elected

YENİ Party is holding its first congress today at Ankara Sports Hall under the slogan "Turkey Is Renewing." At the two-day congress, the party chair will be elected today, while the 150-member Party Council and other party bodies will be elected tomorrow. Party Chair Özgür Özel is entering the congress as the sole candidate.

In the chairmanship primary held on November 8, in which 639,454 members cast votes, Özel received all of the valid votes. The party announced the turnout rate in the primary as 81.3 percent.

On the final day of the congress tomorrow, the Party Council, whose number was raised to 150 specifically for this congress, and the members of the High Disciplinary Board will be elected. The Party Council, which Özel describes as his "election team," is envisaged to be structured in three groups: the "Legislative Group," the "Party Organization Group" and the "Policy Development Group." A bloc-list system is expected in the elections, in which around 1,200 delegates will vote. After the congress, Özel will determine his new Central Executive Board, which is expected to number around 20.

For the Congress Presiding Board chairmanship, the names circulating in the corridors are former party chairs Murat Karayalçın, the President of the Union of Turkish Municipalities and Mayor of Eskişehir Metropolitan Municipality Ayşe Ünlüce, and Mayor of Denizli Metropolitan Municipality Bülent Nuri Çavuşoğlu.

Ahead of the congress, 259 people who served as members of parliament for the CHP in previous terms announced in a joint statement that they had joined YENİ Party. Özel met with these figures yesterday at the party headquarters and pinned a badge on former MP Prof. Dr. Ziya Gökalp Mülayim as their representative.