 In the 2002 Turkish elections, Livaneli was elected to the Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi (Grand National Assembly of Turkey) as a Deputy for Istanbul for the Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi (CHP).Livaneli resigned from the CHP in early 2005, however, in protest at "CHP's non-democratic and authoritarian system of politics",

During his political career in Ankara, Livaneli presented a legislative proposal for amending Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code.The amendment proposed that the concept of "Turkishness" should be replaced with that of the "Turkish nation" which would put an emphasis on the concept of "nation" which, as formulated by the Republic, unites under its umbrella people of different origins.