World Bulletin / News Desk

A leading lawmaker of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) announced on Monday his candidacy for the party chairmanship. 

Speaking at a news conference in the parliament in capital Ankara, Muharrem Ince, lawmaker from Yalova province, said: "In CHP, you cannot be a candidate, but you can be a nominee.

“I am not a presumptive nominee, because I have adequate signatures. I am saying that I have been nominated."

He was referring to the upcoming congress expected to be held on Feb. 3.

"This congress is not the congress for the running of Kemal Kilicdaroglu or Muharrem Ince or other nominees, but the congress of regenerating our future," he said.

Ince, a former deputy group chairman of the party, ran for the chairmanship against Kemal Kilicdaroglu in the 2014 congress of the party.

In the 2014 congress, 740 delegates had voted for Kilicdaroglu while Muharrem Ince received the backing of 415 delegates.

Kilicdaroglu has been leading the party since the 33rd Ordinary Congress of the party held on May 22, 2010.

Ince said the result of the congress will not only be a concern to Turkey, "but also its neighbors, and the European Union.