İYİ Party GİK member Ahmet Zeki Üçok evaluates the local election results and the party congress process for 12punto: 'There must be a renewal in İYİ Party'

Ayhan TAŞPINARLIOĞLU - 12punto.com.tr

İYİ Party Chair Meral Akşener decided to hold an extraordinary elective congress following the local elections, due to the İYİ Party's vote share dropping to 3% and the failure to win expected provinces. Following the decision, the question "are you a candidate?" was directed at İYİ Party Deputy Chair Mehmet Tolga Akalın. Akalın gave the green light to his candidacy for the party leadership by answering, "yes, we are in the process."

İYİ Party GİK member Ahmet Zeki Üçok made significant statements regarding the developments within the party.

"THE VOTERS DID NOT APPROVE THE DECISION TO ENTER THE ELECTION ALONE"

Why did the İYİ Party get this result?

"Every party implements a strategy before elections. The İYİ Party adopted the strategy of entering the elections alone. The decision to enter the election alone was not approved by the organizations and the voters. The language we used during the election process disturbed our voters. We received a poor result for these reasons."

"AKŞENER IS A VETERAN POLITICIAN, WE CANNOT..."

Do you think your Chair Meral Akşener should step down from her position?

"Rather than what I think, Ms. Akşener had stated both in the General Administrative Board (GİK) and in the press that if we were unsuccessful in the election, she would return home. Ms. Akşener is a veteran politician. We do not have the authority to tell her 'return home' or 'do not return home.' Whatever she deems appropriate. It is a matter for Ms. Akşener to decide. Therefore, I am not saying anything like that on this subject."

"SHE REMOVED ME FROM OFFICE"

Does Akşener have a desire to be a candidate again?

"I don't know. I am no longer in the presidential council. She removed me from my post in the presidential council. I haven't met with her face-to-face recently. I don't know her opinion on this matter."

"IT IS QUITE NATURAL FOR HIM TO BE A CANDIDATE"

Mehmet Tolga Akalın said to the candidacy question, "yes, I am in the process." What do you think about this?

"Mr. Tolga is a valuable representative of our party. It is quite natural for him to be a candidate; I wish him success."

"I HOPE THE CHAIR THINKS LIKE US"

What do you think about the short congress calendar? It caused criticism in the party such as "How will the candidates explain themselves to the delegates?"

"I think similarly. Because there is a 10-day holiday break in between. Everyone will be in different places during these 10 days. I think our friends who will be candidates should have the time to explain to our party why they are candidates and what they want to do. These things will be explained, those who are convinced will vote, and those who are not will not vote. I think it would be more appropriate for such a process to begin after we have discussed the question 'why did failure occur in our party' among ourselves. I think April 27 will be evaluated by our chair. I think it would be much more appropriate to hold it at least towards the middle or end of May. I hope the chair thinks like us."

Is there anything you would like to add in conclusion?

"THOSE WHO IMPLEMENTED THE WRONG STRATEGY SHOULD NOT CONTINUE"

"Successful and unsuccessful processes can be experienced in every party during elections. The important thing is to learn lessons from this and not implement wrong strategies. Those who implemented the wrong strategies should not continue. There must be a renewal in the İYİ Party. The General Administrative Board (GİK) took the decision to enter the election alone. This decision was also supported by many people in our party's management staff. Many of our provincial and district organization managers who said 'let's not enter alone, let's enter with cooperation' were removed from their duties. What happened in the end? It became painfully clear that this strategy was wrong. Then, those who insisted so much on this strategy should not take part in the new administration. The İYİ Party must enter a renewal process and continue with a new structure. Otherwise, it is not possible for people who have insisted on previous unsuccessful strategies to come and say something new."