CHP leader: Members to decide party's fate

By Satuk Bugra Kutlugun

ANKARA

Responding to claims that he might resign, Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader on Tuesday said party members would decide what the future holds.

"CHP members will decide what happens to our party," he said in a press meeting at the CHP headquarters in the capital Ankara.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu proceeded to analyze Sunday's presidential and parliamentary elections .

He said the winner of the elections was democracy, while he dubbed the Justice and Development (AK) Party as "the loser of elections".

"The only loser of these elections is AK Party," he said. "They lost 7 (percentage) points of their total votes [from the previous election]."

Kilicdaroglu also commented on presidential candidate Muharrem Ince's performance in the elections, saying the voter turnout for him had been "below expectations".

"He needed to get more votes, he was below expectation, that's what he said to me," Kilicdaroglu said. "We complied with him throughout his campaign, he is a young man, he worked hard."

On Sunday, with 99.9 percent of votes counted, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won an absolute majority in the presidential poll with 52.5 percent of the vote, while Ince received 30.6 percent -- a losing percentage, but the best showing by the CHP at the national level in years.

In Sunday’s parliamentary poll, the CHP won some 22.64 percent, far less than Ince. The AK Party received 42.56 percent, winning 295 seats in the parliament, according to unofficial results.