Obstacles to Erdoğan and Baghçeli’s victory in Istanbul and Ankara municipal elections

According to the report of the International Group Tasnim News Agency, the competition in the coming spring is very important for Turkish political parties. Because local elections are going to be held in April next year, and in addition to mayors, members of city councils will also be elected.

President of Turkey and his party for Winning the upcoming elections has difficult conditions. Because it has not yet been able to take a step to transition from the economic crisis. In addition, in important and strategic areas, the parties opposing the government have popular and powerful mayors who are not easy to get rid of.

Given the special and important position of municipalities and provincial assemblies, as well as taking into account the financial and executive authority of the municipal institution in Turkey, the parties of this The country is trying to take over the largest number of small and large municipalities in a big competition.

Calendar of municipal elections Turkey

based The official announcement of the Supreme Election Organization of Turkey, which is in charge of holding elections, will be held on Sunday, March 31, 2024, corresponding to April 12, 1403 AH.

Officially, the process of It will begin on January 1, 2024, and the names of the authorized parties that can participate in the elections will be announced on January 2. Political parties will submit their list of candidates on January 11, and a lottery will be held on January 27 to determine the order in which the party logos will be placed on the ballot paper. The final list of candidates will be announced by the provincial election commissions on Sunday, March 3. Also, election campaigns will start on Thursday, March 30.

The ruling party is looking to take back three important fortresses from the opposition. The three strategic fortresses of Istanbul, Ankara and Adana, which fell to the candidates supported by the People’s Republic Party in 2019, and now Erdogan wants to take them back.

The fact is that Istanbul as The economic and cultural capital, Ankara as the political capital and Adana as one of the important provinces of Anatolia are very important for the government and all parties, and in these few years that the Justice and Development Party has not controlled the municipalities of these cities, in order to achieve the goals Advertising and social itself, has always faced problems.

Istanbul and Ankara for a long time in They were under Akparty’s authority, and the post of Adana municipality was in the hands of Hossein Suzlo, a nationalist supported by Baghçeli. But Mansoor Yovas in Ankara, Akram Imamoglu in Istanbul and Zidan Karalar in Adana, became mayors with high votes and put Erdogan in a difficult situation in these three strategic cities.

Development and the President of Turkey, together with Dolat Baghçeli, the leader of the National Movement Party and the government’s partner in the President’s coalition, met two days ago to agree on the appointment of joint candidates. It shows that in this meeting, Erdoğan and Baghçeli were able to reach a complete agreement to determine the two final candidates for Istanbul and Ankara. The two candidates appointed against Imamoglu and Yovash are low.

Engineer Murad Kurum, the former Minister of Housing and Urban Development and one of the young politicians trusted by Erdogan, has been proposed for candidacy in Ankara. He is from one of the small cities of Ankara, he knows the influential people and families well, and he has left a defensible track record during the earthquake.

But the problem is that the young Corum Against the social popularity and charisma of Mansour Yuash, it is a difficult way to achieve victory. For this reason, some of Erdogan’s advisers have suggested him to send General Hulusi Akar to the field. Because he was already a popular character as the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces and later as the Minister of Defense, and during the failed coup of 2016, he did not fall under the words of the coup plotters and was introduced as a national hero.

These advisers believe that Erdogan should all to spend the party’s prestigious figures and even introduce the former foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu as a candidate for the mayorship of Antalya.

In Istanbul, the name of Ergun Turan has been proposed as a candidate supported by the government. He used to be the mayor of Fatih region and like Imamoglu, he is from the Black Sea region.

Turan comes from Trabzon province of Turkey and Erdoğan wants all the people of the provinces of the Black Sea region or Karadenizians in the metropolis of Istanbul to vote for him. Of course, he also does not have a high chance against Imamoglu, and commentators believe that Erdogan will eventually have to ask the prosecutor of the Republic Court to find a legal way to remove Imamoglu!

be issued and practically cannot be nominated! This is the way that has been tested many times in Turkey and even famous politicians like Erbakan and Erdogan have faced it.

Among the 81 provinces of Turkey, only The 30 capitals of the province have the title of “big municipality” and among these 30 cities, candidates for the 3 constituencies of Adana, Mersin, and Manisa are all to be selected by Baghçeli’s direct opinion, and the work of Erdoğan’s party is only full support.

What is going on in the opposition front?

There is a kind of silence in the camp of Erdogan’s opponents. Because the deep differences and especially the harsh positions of the leader of the Good Party, Meral Aksehner, against Kemal Kilicdaroglu, as well as the important changes in the People’s Republic Party, changed everything. After Klichdaroglu is sitting in the leadership seat of the People’s Republic Party, yesterday he went to see Akshner.

In this meeting, he demanded that the good party, at least in some sensitive areas, including 3 sensitive strongholds, to support the People’s Republic Party. Actionner’s cold answer was: “I have a meeting with my deputies on Monday.” We will consider your proposal”. The predictions indicate that Aksner will not reject Ozel’s request, but at the same time, he does not have a great motivation to support the party’s candidate. And Ozel will probably have to pay Akshner a ransom in several cities.

It means that he will agree not to introduce a candidate in some distant cities and leave the field to Akshner so that he can In return, he will get the support of Actionner fans in Istanbul, Ankara and Adana.

People’s Republic Party does not field new people in any of the 3 sensitive cities and wants to to increase the number of their municipalities.

Now, Akshner’s name has been raised as an important activist in a situation where his party does not even have a provincial capital in hand, and on the other hand P.K.K.’s Aqmaari institution owns several municipalities. But the Turkish media does not have much desire to cover news politicians close to the PKK and it is not clear that this group What will be the situation in the upcoming elections?

The graph above shows that the Justice and Development Party (AKP) compared between the two election cycles of 2014 and 2019, a number of municipalities They have lost 81 provinces, but the People’s Republic Party (CHP) and the National Movement Party (MHP) have increased the number of their municipalities. The People’s Democratic Party (HDP) also lost a number of its municipalities as a satellite of the PKK. Now we have to see where this competition will lead in the upcoming elections.

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