site.btaIn Turkiye, Powerholders, Opposition Get Ready Early for 2024 Local Elections

While Turkiye's local elections are scheduled for March 31, 2024, both powerholders and opposition already set their eyes on them.

Back in his speech after the May 29, 2023 victory in the parliamentary and presidential elections, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan identified winning the local elections as a top priority for his Justice and Development Party (AKP).

What Erdogan is really targeting is to wrest Istanbul from the control of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) because, as Erdogan used to say while he was mayor of the megapolis between 1994 and 1998, "whoever controls Istanbul controls Turkiye".

"AKP and, respectively, Erdogan, will undoubtedly spare no efforts and resources to secure the Istanbul mayorship which is now held by Ekrem Imamoglu. They are not at all interested in Ankara," commented freelance columnist Fatih Altayli. 

Pro-government media list five options that Erdogan may consider to field against the CHP candidate, including Health Minister Fahrettin Koca, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Adil Karaismailoglu, and former Environment and Urbanization Minister Murat Kurum.

"Certainly, there is always an option for Erdogan to come up with a different name at the last minute so as to be sure that he will clinch Istanbul," said Altayli.

While CHP candidate Imamoglu leads in the opinion polls, the analyst predicts that the opposition party may quite probably make mistakes that will allow the AKP to win back Istanbul. 

According to sources close to AKP, its Istanbul mayoral candidate will be announced not earlier than November 2023.

"The local elections strategy will differ from the parliamentary elections strategy. Services in the AKP-controlled municipalities will be foregrounded in comparison and competition with those in the municipalities ruled by the opposition. Naturally, the campaign promises of the powerholders' candidates will be backed by projects generously financed by the central government budget," said the Gazete Duvar news portal. 

At a news conference, CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu nominated incumbent Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavas as his party's candidate for mayor of the capital city next year.

"If possible, I'd like to continue to be a mayor of all. We don't have any time to waste on political debate. We don't have the right to re-live Ankara's trauma of 25 years ago. If you stand up by us, I would like to run in the elections and be with you for five more years," Yavas told journalists.
 
Istanbul Mayor Imamoglu recently expressed readiness to seek re-election in the March 2024 local elections.

"We must rally to win Istanbul yet again. I call on all our citizens to unite so as to restore democracy and become the real owners of our city. Just as in 2019, I embark on the road in order to serve Istanbul and its 16 million residents," he pointed out.

At the same time, the opposition CHP is shaken by infighting between two opposing factions. One faction insists on radical changes and above all on Kilicdaroglu's resignation from the leadership over his defeat at the presidential elections and the loss of his parliamentary seat. The anti-Kilicdaroglu faction is spearheaded by Imamoglu and CHP Floor Leader Ozgur Ozel. A couple of days ago the latter made public his plans to stand against Kilicdaroglu for party leader at the 38th CHP Congress due in early November 2023.

The other faction insists on keeping the status quo, i.e. Kilicdaroglu at the helm of the party. He made it clear that he will not step down despite insistent calls to resign.

At the regular congress of the other opposition force, the Good Party (IYI), in June 2023, its leader Meral Aksener practically severed all ties with her previous partner Kilicdaroglu, blaming him for the election defeat.

IYI Spokesperson Kursad Zorlu said a couple of days ago that his party will nominate candidates of its own in all 81 provinces of the country. 

This implies that the Good Party will not back CHP candidates Imamoglu and Yavas in 2024 - unlike 2019, when the two won in Istanbul and Ankara, respectively.

Aksener was the most ardent advocate of Imamoglu and Yavas's bids against Erdogan at the latest presidential elections.

"God is my witness that whatever I did I did it so that we could win the elections. I wish everybody could be as disinterested and brave as we were. Unfortunately, they were not up to it," Aksener said, addressing the congress, referring to Imamoglu and Yavas.