Turkey – Local elections

This is not an April Fool!

Turkey held local elections on 29 March. The results were somewhat of a setback for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) party.

Hurriyet Daily News reports that unofficially the AKP won around 38% of the vote for the provincial assemblies. The main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP) is reported to have won around 23%. This marks a decline of about 8% for the AKP in relation to last year’s legislative election and a increase of about 2% for the social democratic CHP.

Turkish Weekly provides the following figures (larger parties only):

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) 17.1
Democratic Left Party (DSP) 3.0
Democratic Society Party (DTP) 5.0
Republican People’s Party (CHP) 22.1
Grand Unity Party (BBP) 2.4
Democratic Party (DP) 4.3
Felicity Party (SP) 5.1
Justice and Development (AK) Party 38.6

In most of the bigger cities, the AKP held on to the city councils, and the mayors, but usually with a considerable fall in support. In Ankara, the long-standing AKP mayor won re-election but saw his vote fall from 55% to 38%. Here, the right-wing Nationalist Movement Party won 27%. In Istanbul the AKP mayor was returned, but the party won 44%, again down on previous elections.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *