'Clean environment, transparent municipalities' AK Party's local elections slogan

The main slogan of the ruling Justice and Development Party's (AK Party) local election manifesto is expected to be "clean society, clean environment and transparent administrations," emphasizing criticism concerning unplanned urbanization, wasting municipality resources and lack of greener areas in some provinces.

According to a report in the Yeni Şafak daily on Wednesday, the AK Party has completed writing the strategy to be followed in the local elections scheduled for March 2019. The text, which is expected to be announced by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Jan. 19 in Ankara, reportedly puts people, transparency and the environment at the center.

The strategy reportedly suggests that mayors will be more transparent in municipal works and will abide by the perspective determined in the manifest. Also, a discipline committee to be established by party headquarters will inspect municipalities at certain intervals.

In recent years, the AK Party geared up efforts to emphasize environmentalism and eco-friendly policies. In the declaration for the June 24 presidential and parliamentary elections, the AK Party pledged to invest in city parks and vast green areas.

Erdoğan has also been in favor of enhancing environmental conditions, harshly criticizing urban methods that damage greenery and solely rely on construction. "In the end, each step that destroys our ecosystem is a catastrophe. I think we must immediately make adjustments," he said in 2017 in a speech.

The party also announced earlier this week that traditional campaign methods will be eliminated and instead be made more environmentally friendly by utilizing social media channels. "We are completely leaving campaign methods that cause visual and noise pollution. We have decided to follow a campaign respecting the environment and people," Erdoğan said last week during the party's extended provincial heads meeting at party headquarters in Ankara. Erdoğan underlined that to prevent visual pollution, the party will only be allowed to display flags near party organizations and election coordination centers.