CHP, BDP not to nominate most parliamentary deputies

There were earlier rumors that the AK Party would not nominate around 200 of its deputies for a new term in Parliament. The ruling party currently has 334 deputies in Parliament. Twenty of its deputies have already announced that they will not run in the next elections, slated for June 12. Among them are State Minister Mehmet Aydın, chairman of the EU Harmonization Committee in Parliament Yaşar Yakış, former Finance Minister Kemal Unakıtan, AK Party Deputy Chairman Akif Gülle and deputies Faruk Koca, Ülkü Güney, Yaşar Eryılmaz, Özlem Türköne, Mete Doğruer and Mustafa Çetin. However, Defense Minister Vecdi Gönül, who most thought would not run in the elections, has applied to the AK Party administration to be nominated as a candidate for deputy in the elections.

The BDP does not plan to nominate 10 of its 20 deputies in the elections. Among them are two non-Kurdish deputies who are currently in Parliament. Instead, the BDP will nominate Leyla Zana and Hatip Dicle, former deputies of the Democracy Party (DEP), an indirect predecessor of the BDP that was shut down by the Constitutional Court in 1994 on charges of engaging in separatism. Both Zana and Dicle are important figures in Kurdish politics and were imprisoned on terror charges.

On the other hand, the CHP plans not to nominate at least 50 of its 101 deputies for a new term in Parliament. Some say this figure may be as high as 70. The reason behind the CHP’s unwillingness to re-nominate existing deputies as candidate in the elections seems to be party leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu’s goal of having his close circle of friends elected in the polls. The CHP currently has deputies elected for only 44 of 81 Turkish provinces.

In the meantime, the number of applicants who want to be nominated as parliamentary candidates by the AK Party for the elections has surpassed 5,500. Among all of the applicants, 803 of them are women and 267 are disabled. There are also female applicants who wear the Muslim headscarf.

Öcalan’s influence on BDP decision to not nominate some deputies

There are rumors that the jailed leader of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Abdullah Öcalan, influenced the BDP administration in its decision to not nominate half of its existing deputies as candidates for the next term in Parliament. Öcalan expressed disappointment with the deputies, according to rumors, which led the party to refuse to nominate certain deputies.

The deputies are Akın Birdal, Ufuk Uras, Osman Özçelik, Nuri Yaman, Hamit Geylani, Fatma Kurtulan, Şerafettin Halis, Bengi Yıldız, Nezir Karabaş and Sevahir Bayındır. The BDP said the party is not happy with the performance of those deputies in Parliament, which is why they will not be nominated as candidate for deputy in the elections. Uras, who joined the BDP in 2007 as the 20th deputy only to enable the party to form a parliamentary group, and Birdal, also elected in 2007 as a BDP-endorsed independent candidate, were the two sole deputies from the BDP of non-Kurdish ethnicity.

The BDP plans to nominate more “hawkish” figures instead of the 10 deputies. Among those figures will be some suspects in the ongoing investigation into the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) -- the urban branch of the PKK.

Legal action against deputies who fail to get re-elected

Some deputies will face official investigations due to allegations made during the period they served as deputies if they fail to get re-elected in the June 12 elections. There are at present 768 requests for investigation into deputies currently serving in Parliament. Most of the requests concern BDP deputies, followed by deputies from the AK Party, the CHP and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).

Under Turkish law, deputies are shielded from administrative investigations during the term they serve in Parliament; however, legal action can be taken against them once their immunity ends.