MHP denies referral of congress decision to Constitutional Court

The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) emphatically rejected claims that the Supreme Court of Appeals has handed the case on the party's extraordinary congress to the Constitutional Court.

News reports alleging the file has been sent to the Constitutional Court by the 18th Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court did not accurately reflect the truth, MHP Deputy Chair Semih Yalçın told reporters. “The legal process on the extraordinary congress is still underway,” he said.

Earlier reports said that the Supreme Court of Appeals handed the file on the MHP extraordinary congress to the Constitutional Court, after a MHP member applied to defer the file to Turkey's highest court.

Dissidents in MHP had applied to the court to hold an extraordinary congress in the aftermath of the hardliner party's poor results in November's election. More than 500 party members sent a petition to the MHP headquarters calling for an emergency convention.

The row within the hardliner party emerged from its heavy defeat in November snap election. MHP fell behind pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) to be the fourth and smallest opposition group in the Parliament.

In June polls, the hardliner party appeared to be third largest group in the Parliament. On June 7, the party had ensured 80 seats and received around 16 percent of the vote.