Azarkan elected party leader Think, but doubts about election

Farid Azarkan is Saturday by the members of Denk elected party leader, but doubts have arisen about how that happened. Experts say against de Volkskrant that the way Denk has organized his leadership election is against the law. However, the party itself believes that everything was in order.

Denk held a general meeting on Saturday, where a vote could be taken for a new party board and the party leader. Azarkan was the only candidate to become party leader. At the meeting, according to de Volkskrant due to the corona rules, only 94 members are present, while 144 people signed up. Those who were not welcome could not vote digitally. Denk selected the members who were allowed to attend “on the basis of a fair geographic distribution by province”.

Also read: Azarkan wants to become the party leader of Denk

In de Volkskrant Professor Marjan Olfers, an expert in association law, says that Denk’s method is ‘absolutely not’ permitted. “All members must have the opportunity to exercise their right to vote. The party board should certainly not make a selection as to who may and may not vote, ”said Olfers. As far as she is concerned, Azarkan’s election is not legally valid. “If someone goes to court, they have a really big problem.” Attorney Fred van Brussel, also an associate law expert, also criticizes Denk’s selection policy. “Invite a hundred members and have the rest vote digitally: that could have been done. But this is selective. And then it is not a legally valid decision. ”

‘Necessity knows no law’

Metin Çelik, interim chairman of Denk until Saturday, believes that the election was indeed legally valid. “Need breaks the law,” he says de Volkskrant. “I did not invent the tightened corona measures. We have obtained legal advice. It is possible under these circumstances. ” Olfers does not agree with him: “They could have postponed the meeting and voted digitally. So there are alternatives. The argument ‘necessity breaks the law’ does not apply here. ”

Azarkan has been in the House of Representatives for Denk since 2017. The other two MPs of the party, Tunahan Kuzu and Selçuk Özturk, have both announced that they will not stand for re-election in next year’s parliamentary elections. Their decision stemmed from a publicly fought feud at the Think Summit, which among other things led to Azarkan being briefly banned as a member.

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