It has been decided that on Sunday, March 31 (12th), millions of Turkish citizens will go to the polling stations to elect municipalities and local authorities in this country.
These elections are held less than a year after the current president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, remained in his position as the president of the country for another five years.
In his victory speech, Erdogan said: “Now we are facing 2024. Do you want to win the 2024 local elections in Iskudar (Erdogan’s private residence in Istanbul) and Istanbul?”
Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party aims to win back key cities, including Turkey’s largest, Istanbul, and the capital, Ankara. In the 2019 elections in these two cities, Erdogan’s party was defeated and its rival, the Turkish People’s Republic Party and its ally, the nationalist “IYI” party, won.
In Istanbul and Ankara, two cities that account for a quarter of Turkey’s population, electoral victories have given the Turkish People’s Republic Party a significant share of power over the past five years.
Some analysts believe that Istanbul will be the main battleground in Sunday’s election.
Political affairs expert Ismat Aka told the Voice of America that the next election will be mostly attacked around the city of Istanbul. According to him, in last year’s presidential election, the candidate of the opposition party, Kemal Kilicdar Oglu, won more votes than Erdogan in Istanbul.
According to him, Istanbul is symbolically important for political parties with a population of 15 million. In the past, President Erdoğan also repeated an old saying several times: “Whoever wins the Istanbul Municipality, he will rule the country.”
Before that, Erdogan served as the mayor of Istanbul between 1994 and 1998.
Currently, Ikram Imamoglu of the Turkish People’s Republic Party is the mayor of Istanbul. If this party had won the 2023 parliamentary and presidential elections, Imamoglu would have been elected as the vice president.
Also, Erdogan’s victory in the May 2023 elections led to the collapse of the alliance between the Turkish People’s Republic Party and the nationalist “IYI” party. Now these two parties are contesting the local elections separately.
In addition, in the last five years, new parties have emerged, including the Rafa Islamist Party, and it is expected that the candidates of these new parties will compete in the Istanbul elections.
Turkey’s constitution, which was last amended in 2017, allows the country’s president to serve only two five-year terms. But according to Article 116 of this law, if the Turkish parliament decides to hold elections in the second round, the current president of that country can re-nominate himself in the presidential elections.
Erdogan said in November last year that the Justice and Development Party under his leadership is planning to work on a new constitution. President Erdoğan’s statement was taken as a sign of his party remaining in power.
Political affairs expert Ismat Aka says that Erdogan does not want to lose to Imamoglu for the second time in the Istanbul elections.
Some analysts believe that the Justice and Development Party led by Erdoğan is in danger in the country’s municipal and district elections, because in these elections, strong opposition parties compete against the ruling party. does