CHP mayor not nominated resigns from the party! Will run as an independent in the elections...

As the country heads toward local elections, the candidate selection process for political parties continues.

While the CHP has announced 242 of its candidates across 15 provinces, the announced candidates have caused reactions both in the public eye and within the party.

Tarsus Mayor Haluk Bozdoğan, who was not re-nominated for the local elections to be held in March 2024, has resigned from his party, the CHP.

Announcing his resignation with a statement on his social media account, Bozdoğan recalled that the Republican People's Party had determined its Tarsus mayoral candidate for the 2024 local elections, and stated, "As a result of the interviews with the deputies sent to our region, the polls conducted, and my individual meetings with CHP Chairman Özgür Özel, it was stated to me that there was no problem with my candidacy for the Tarsus Municipality, which we won 25 years later with a record vote of over 95 thousand, and that I was ahead in the polls. However, it is clear that a deputy living in Istanbul, who has no organic connection to Tarsus other than their registration, has shown the audacity to appoint their friends and acquaintances, and their consultants' brothers-in-law, to the districts of Mersin; that they have disgraced the CHP to the entire country by showing reactions above the party's MYK and PM bodies; that they have put their bilateral relations on the table rather than the public interest in these appointments; that they have played 'one-man rule' by not taking the opinion of any other regional deputy, and thus played with the fate of Tarsus and consequently Mersin; and I am resigning from my beloved CHP by objecting to the facts that the appointments made by one person under these conditions cannot be accepted."

WILL RUN AS AN INDEPENDENT IN THE ELECTIONS

In the continuation of his statement, Bozdoğan emphasized that he would continue his work under the 'Independent Tarsus Movement' campaign and decided to enter the local elections as an independent candidate, saying, "I declare that I will shout out the objection to the suspicious appointments in our district of 500 thousand people by the Republican People's Party, which they are trying to turn into a toy for one man and have belittled, until the evening of March 31, and this disgrace for the rest of my life everywhere. The reason that political showmen have turned Atatürk's party into their toy in Mersin, and that they are involved in every appointment from the tea server to the mayor, has made it impossible for me to engage in politics under the CHP umbrella in our region. For these reasons, I submit my resignation to the clean conscience of the public, and I invite all my fellow citizens to a clean victory, to the 'Independent Tarsus Movement'."