President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced on Friday that the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) would declare a candidate on Sunday for the capital, Ankara, for upcoming local elections. Along with Ankara, which is currently run by the main opposition, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), Erdoğan’s ruling AK Party is expected to release the names of candidates for other cities and districts.
Earlier this month, the party announced former Minister of Environment, Urban Planning and Climate Change Murat Kurum as its candidate for Istanbul for the March 31 municipal elections.
Media reports said earlier that the Ankara candidate would be announced on Monday, but Erdoğan said it was likely the candidate would be announced this weekend.
Erdoğan on Thursday met Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the main ally of the AK Party in its People’s Alliance. “We are assessing our work for elections in a sincere mood. We are discussing the progress our friends achieved,” he said, referring to meetings of AK Party and MHP officials for fielding joint candidates in some cities.
“We believe the People’s Alliance will deliver a defeat to others (in the opposition) they did not expect in this election,” he added.
In the aftermath of last May's general elections, the March 31 vote is a test of popular support for the CHP and the AK Party. It will show whether the opposition can recoup in time and if the AK Party is still popular despite challenges.
The party is eager to recapture Istanbul from Ekrem Imamoğlu and Ankara from Mansur Yavaş, popular mayors of the opposition.
On Wednesday, the MHP announced 55 mayoral candidates, including for two metropolitan cities, 12 provinces and districts in 41 cities. Cengiz Ergün will compete for Manisa, while Serdar Soydan will run in Mersin, the MHP said.
The CHP, which led a six-party opposition bloc in last year’s general elections, lost its allies in the aftermath of their defeat. Its main ally, the Nation’s Alliance Good Party (IP), parted ways with the CHP for municipal elections.
Despite outcry among some supporters, the CHP turned to the pro-PKK Green Left Party (YSP), informally known as the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), a successor of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP). CHP leader Özgür Özel met the party’s co-chairs on Friday, and the YSP announced that they were discussing possibilities of endorsing CHP candidates or vice versa in some cities but the decision was not final yet.
YSP spokesperson Ayşegül Doğan told a news conference on Friday that they would field candidates in seven cities, including the capital, Ankara. She said committees from their party and the CHP would carry out work to assess whether they can cooperate in some provinces.
