ANKARA
A lawmaker from Turkey’s main opposition party has quit, saying her colleagues will not change their “desperate” policies.
Emine Ulker Tarhan, a member of parliament for capital Ankara, resigned from the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, on Friday.
Tarhan said: "I resign from the CHP, to which I came with great expectations."
Claiming the party administration would not change its "desperate" direction, Tarhan said she did not want to be part of "wrong and weak" policies.
Tarhan’s resignation reduces the CHP’s seats in the parliament to 128. Tarhan will join a group of independent deputies, bringing their tally to 16.
Tarhan joined the main opposition party in 2011. She served as deputy group chairwoman until June 2013. She had previously called for the party leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, to step down following a party-backed candidate’s poor showing in the country's August presidential election.
The party had fielded a joint candidate, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, with other opposition parties in the election, which the ruling Justice and Development Party's Recep Tayyip Erdogan won with 51.79 percent of the vote.
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