Justice and Development Party (AK Party) officials met with their counterparts from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) on Wednesday as part of mediation efforts regarding the planned municipal administration reforms.
AK Party Deputy Chair Mehmet Özhaseki and CHP Deputy Chair Seyit Torun held a meeting in the parliament to exchange views about the planned reforms.
In their first face-to-face meeting, the two politicians discussed ideas about the general principles and sought reconciliation to reach a consensus in the Parliament for the approval of the proposal.
Torun suggested that the municipalities’ authorities and sources of income should be increased with permanent regulations. Torun mentioned the economic difficulties many municipalities are facing, noting that while their responsibilities have been increasing, their income sources remained the same.
In response, Özhaseki said that they would evaluate the CHP’s concerns and underlined the importance of reconciliation in the issue.
It was also reported that the Presidency and the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization will conduct separate works about the reforms in local administrations, in addition to the AK Party’s efforts.
The AK Party and CHP will meet again during the proposal development process to reform the local administration regulations.
Millions of Turkish voters went to the polls on March 31 to choose mayors, city council members, mukhtars (neighborhood officials) and members of elder councils for five years.
While the AK Party led the polls in half of 30 metropolitan municipalities, the CHP led the polls in 11 metropolitan municipalities including Istanbul and the capital Ankara.
A total of 24 of the other 51 provinces are led by AK Party municipalities, while 10 of them are led by CHP municipalities.
The government has planned to widen the authority of the district municipalities while narrowing down the authority of provincial municipalities, especially when it comes to the major provinces such as Istanbul and Ankara.
The government has been planning to make some changes within the district authorities within the scope of the presidential system reforms that are on the way. In this respect, it was reported that in metropolises such as Istanbul and Ankara, some authorities of the metropolitan municipality will be transferred to the district municipalities.
In order to increase efficiency, it was suggested to make alterations within the distribution of certain authorities and transfer some rights to the districts. It was also reported that the AK Party has been working on the issue for a while now, consulting local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and local administration experts on the issue. If the final draft of the work gets approval from President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, it will be presented to the National Assembly.
The work also suggests an increase within the revenue of the local administrations while strengthening the hand of the municipalities when it comes to the fulfillment of a decree.