Turkey’s pro-Kurdish opposition elects new leaders

ANKARA: Turkey´s main pro-Kurdish party elected new leaders on Sunday, at a congress that party officials said authorities had tried to stop by arresting hundreds of would-be attendees.

The Peoples´ Democratic Party (HDP) met to replace Selahattin Demirtas, its leader since June 2014 and the person who took it into parliament for the first time, as he is in jail facing charges of supporting terrorism and said he would not seek re-election. The party unanimously elected Istanbul lawmaker Pervin Buldan and Deputy Co-Chairman Sezai Temelli, the only candidates, as the new leaders of the second-largest opposition party in Turkey´s parliament.

The party said delegates´ cars were stopped and they were subjected to frequent ID checks by police who detained around 500 people in the days leading up to the congress, attended by 32,000 members and supporters.