Ankara, May 23: A former lawmaker has been elected as Turkey’s main opposition party leader after an alleged sex tape scandal forced the former veteran head of the party to resign.
Kemal Kilicdaroglu won the leadership of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) on Saturday to become the party’s seventh chairman.
Addressing his supporters, Kilicdaroglu vowed to combat unemployment and graft, Reuters reported.
The 62-year-old is expected to focus on restoring the party’s left-wing credentials.
Kilicdaroglu, former parliamentarian from Istanbul, said he supported Turkey’s aim to join the European Union and asked Brussels to give a date for Turkish accession.
The ex-head of CHP, Deniz Baykal, stepped down two weeks ago after a video, posted on the Internet, purportedly showed that he was having an affair with a lawmaker.
Baykal’s party had lost two national elections to the ruling AK Party. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan won 47 percent of the votes in the 2007 general elections while the CHP polled 21 percent.
——–Agencies