The number of mayors elected under the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) banner who have since joined Türkiye’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) has risen to 44.

The latest switches include the mayors of Çerkezköy, Çiğli, Elmalı, Şenkaya and Marmara, continuing a series of defections from the CHP since the 2024 local elections.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan presented party badges to the nine mayors during the party’s Expanded Provincial Chairs Meeting in Ankara on Tuesday and wished them success in their work.

The CHP won 420 municipalities across Türkiye in the 2024 elections. With 44 mayors having since resigned from the party and joined the AK Party, the figure represents roughly one in every 10 mayors elected on the CHP ticket, according to the figures.

The defections have fueled further debate within the opposition over the CHP’s candidate selection process and its handling of local administrations under Chair Özgür Özel.

CHP spokesperson Müslim Sarı criticized the party leadership over the latest developments, questioning how the mayors who later left the party had initially been selected as candidates.

"We asked the officials of the period before, and today we are asking again: Who nominated these people? Who recommended them? On the basis of what assessments did they become the CHP’s mayoral candidates? Aren’t you considering engaging in self-criticism?” Sarı said.

Several prominent municipal officials have been among those who switched to the AK Party over the past 2.5 years, including Aydın Metropolitan Mayor Özlem Çerçioğlu, Afyonkarahisar Mayor Burcu Köksal, Keçiören Mayor Mesut Özarslan, Beykoz Deputy Mayor Özlem Vural Gürzel and Tuzla Mayor Eren Ali Bingöl.

Çerçioğlu, mayor of Aydın province in western Türkiye, was the most high-profile name from the CHP to join the AK Party in recent years.

Çerçioğlu said she took the matter to CHP Chair Özgür Özel, and he listened to her concerns but did not respond. She claimed that she faced a barrage of insults on social media after speaking to Özel, and for months CHP headquarters did not respond to her.

She further said Özel himself openly defamed her, claiming she took bribes from a businessperson, noting that both the prosecutor’s office in Aydın and the Court of Accounts, which was inspecting municipalities, ruled for non-prosecution for her in that case.

The mayors who left the CHP cited a range of reasons for their decisions, including dissatisfaction with the party leadership, alleged pressure, a lack of attention to the demands of local administrations and concerns over the party’s institutional functioning.

Moreover, six municipal council members also from the CHP in Istanbul’s Ataşehir district joined the AK Party on Wednesday, a day after nine district mayors switched to the party.

Oğuz Sarul, Sinan Emrah Yıldırım, Fatih Evliyaoğlu, Abdullah Aslan, Cengiz Kayayurt and Mehmet Alver joined the AK Party during a local party meeting in Ataşehir, according to a statement from the AK Party’s Istanbul branch.

Sarul also serves as a member of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB) Council.

The switches changed the balance in the Ataşehir Municipal Council to 19 members for the CHP, 16 for the AK Party and two for the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).

AK Party Istanbul Chair Abdullah Özdemir welcomed the six members, saying the party was open to people from different political backgrounds who wanted to contribute to local government.

Özdemir said the new members would contribute to a service-oriented period in local politics and that the party would continue working to address problems facing Istanbul residents.

Most recently, Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavaş resigned from the CHP in an announcement last week, saying, "I am resigning my membership in the Republican People’s Party and will continue my political path as an independent.”

In a statement on social media, Yavaş said his decision to leave the CHP was not made out of anger or resentment but after careful consideration.

He noted that political and legal disputes that began on March 19 and later included debate over the possible annulment of CHP party congresses had brought Turkish politics to a difficult point.