Following a meeting of its Central Executive Committee on Monday, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) announced new appointments to seven provincial branches.
The appointments come about three months after municipal elections in which the party lost several strongholds.
The party said in a statement that new chairs were appointed to provincial branches in Adıyaman, Afyonkarahisar, Erzincan, Gaziantep, Kastamonu, Osmaniye and Zonguldak and thanked their predecessors for their efforts.
The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) won mayoral seats in the eastern province of Adıyaman and the western province of Afyonkarahisar, which were governed by AK Party mayors for years, for the first time, in the March 31 elections. In Erzincan of the Black Sea region, an AK Party ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) candidate retained his seat. Gaziantep was among the few provinces in the south where Fatma Şahin, incumbent mayor from the AK Party, regained her seat. The CHP also won in Kastamonu, while the AK Party candidate secured only about 36% of the votes. In Zonguldak, where the AK Party won the mayoral seat from the CHP in the 2019 elections, the opposition won the latest poll by securing more than 54% of the vote.
Overall, the AK Party won 380 city and district municipalities, while the CHP declared victory in 372 municipalities. Still, the opposition is deemed victorious for winning in cities with overwhelming support for the AK Party in the past elections. Indeed, this is the first major loss for the ruling party in the past two decades when it won successive general and local elections.
Convening his party’s branch heads for 81 provinces at a meeting in early May, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan hinted at changes within party cadres in the aftermath of the elections. He emphasized that they would not allow those seeking to advance their own political career and would focus on winning the hearts of “new names that will empower us.”
