Local Elections in Turkey, 31st of March 2019

More than 57 million people in Turkey were registered to vote for mayors and councilors. The outcomes of the elections which were held on yesterday are outstanding. The main opposition party in Turkey had difficulties to receive votes in many years. However, the election was a game changer yesterday. I will briefly tell the major points below:

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• Main opposition party (CHP) received the majority of votes in 3 biggest cities in Turkey namely İstanbul, Ankara and İzmir.
• Ekrem İmamoğlu became the İstanbul metropolitan municipality mayor by receiving just 24,000 more votes than his rival.
• Mansur Yavaş became the Ankara metropolitan municipality mayor. It is the first time after 25 years that AKP (Justice and Development Party) has lost its impact on the capital.
• Tunç Soyer became the İzmir metropolitan municipality mayor.
• Candidate of the communist party of Turkey, Fatih Mehmet Maçoğlu, was selected as Mayor of Tunceli.
• An independent candidate, Mehmet Siyam Kesimoğlu, won the elections as mayor of Kırklareli.
• AKP (Justice and Development Party) and its alliance (MHP, Nationalist Movement Party) has won more than 51% of the vote in the municipal elections.