The congress was initially intended to be held on 15 May 2016 after enough delegates submitted the required signatures, however it was delayed after judiciary conflicts between different courts.

The congress was called for by several inner-party critics of the MHP's current leader Devlet Bahçeli, who had led the party to a heavy defeat in the November 2015 general election.

At the same time, Bahçeli was criticised for effectively 'handing over' the June–July 2015 Parliament Speaker election to the AKP candidate by abstaining.

Bahçeli subsequently ruled out any prospect of a resignation and declared that the next leadership election would be held as expected in 2018, three years after the previous Ordinary Congress in March 2015.

Under the leadership of opposing candidates, delegates critical Bahçeli began collecting signatures to force an Extraordinary Congress.

[13] One of the leadership candidates, Ümit Özdağ, claimed that the attempts to stop the congress had been initiated by the Minister of Justice.

However, the inner-party opposition declared that the MHP constitution at the time did not allow a leadership election to be held apart from during the routine ordinary congresses every three years, leading to speculation that the MHP executive were planning to hold the congress and then nullifying the result through court order.

The first Congress of 2016 was held on 19 June 2016 as announced by the invitation committee at the Anatolia Hotel Esenboğa Auditorium in Ankara, starting at 10am.

[15] Then incumbent party executives and 38 out of 40 MHP PMs boycotted the Congress, Devlet Bahçeli did not attend the event.