Etiket election

About 3 million candidates will enter the race at the local elections scheduled for March 29 in Turkey for the post of mayor in 2,123 municipalities, village headsman (muhtar) in some 36,000 villages and membership in the municipal and local councils. Out of the 3 million candidates some 500,000 will win the race. Local elections in many countries do not usually come with the fanfare that general elections exhibit; but not so in Turkey. Since fall last year political parties launched their campaigns full steam and the bickering between them is expected to get increasingly loud as March 29 approaches. Candidates from 20 political parties as well as independents will be running for the much coveted seats. But the real race will be run between the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, main oppostion Republican Peoples Party (CHP) of Deniz Baykal, Nationalist Action Party (MHP) of Devlet Bahceli, Democratic Left Party (DSP) of Zeki Sezer and Democratic Society Party (DTP) which polls the votes of Turkey’s Kurdish citizens, especially in the southeastern provinces. In the previous local elections in 2004 AKP mayors won in 12 major Turkish cities including, Ankara, Istanbul and Adana. In other 46 cities out of 81, AKP candidates came on top as mayors. On March 29, the race seems to be close in cities like Izmir, presently run by a CHP mayor, Diyarbakir which went to DTP and Kocaeli, also under a CHP administration. Long before the election campaign was launched Tayyip Erdogan is known to give instructions to his party organization that he “wants” Izmir and Diyarbakir to be won over this time. CHP has introduced Kemal Kilicdaroglu as a candidate for Istanbul mayor. Kilicdaroglu, currently a parliament member, won popularity in recent months by revealing corruption cases against the […]