Turkey’s parliamentary main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has faced multiple calls from inside the party to resign from the leadership after the June 24 elections.
Some 22.6 percent of voters opted for the CHP, according to initial results, while the its presidential candidate Muharrem İnce attracted more than 30 percent of voters but failed to force a second round.
İnce on Monday said he accepted the results and would call Erdoğan to congratulate him.
"You cannot congratulate someone who ties the executive, judicial and legislative organs to themselves. You cannot congratulate someone who defends a one-man regime. What are you congratulating?" Kılıçdaroğlu told reporters on Tuesday.
"If the person says they will run with a one-man regime to the end, why should I congratulate a dictator?" said Kılıçdaroğlu.
Amid signs of post-poll strains within the CHP, he refused to resign.
Kılıçdaroğlu said that the "only loser" of the elections was the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). "They lost seven points thanks to our party's efforts."
He criticised the "pressure, bribery and threats" during the election campaign while acknowledging there was no fraud in the vote itself.
A number of former party administrators and deputies also blasted Kılıçdaroğlu and asked for his resignation.
İnce refused to answer questions regarding the CHP’s future at a press conference on June 25, only mentioning that he would meet Kılıçdaroğlu to evaluate the results. But he tweeted on Tuesday that he would visit all 81 provinces of Turkey to "meet, embrace and thank" everyone, "starting with those provinces I was not able to visit before the elections".
İnce has on two previous occasions unsuccessfully challenged Kılıçdaroğlu for the party leadership.
