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2024 Turkish local elections

←  2019 31 March 2024 Next →
All 81 Provinces of Turkey 30 metropolitan, 922 district and 398 town municipal mayors 1,282 provincial and 21,001 municipal councillors
Opinion polls
Turnout	78.53% ( 6.14 pp)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Özgür Özel Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Fatih Erbakan Party CHP AK Party YRP Alliance People's Alliance Last election 21 provinces, 29.36% 39 provinces, 42.56% Did not contest Provinces [a] 35 24 2 Change 14 15 2 Popular vote [b] 17,391,548 16,339,771 2,851,784 Percentage [b] 37.77% 35.49% 6.19% Swing 8.41 pp 7.06 pp New   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Tülay Hatimoğulları Oruç & Tuncer Bakırhan Devlet Bahçeli Meral Akşener Party DEM MHP İYİ Alliance Labour & Freedom People's Alliance Last election 8 provinces, 5.60% [c] 11 provinces, 7.46% 0 provinces, 7.31% Provinces [a] 10 8 1 Change 2 3 1 Popular vote [b] 2,625,588 2,297,662 1,735,924 Percentage [b] 5.70% 4.99% 3.77% Swing 0.10 pp 2.47 pp 3.54 pp
CHP (35)         AK Party (24)         DEM (10)         MHP (8)       YRP (2)         İYİ (1)         BBP (1) Winners by province       AK Party (356)         CHP (337)         MHP (122)         DEM (65)       YRP (39)         İYİ (24)         BBP (14)         DP (2)         SP (1)         DEVA (1)       TİP (1)         DSP (1)         SOL (1)         Independents (8) Winners by district

Local elections in Turkey took place throughout the country's 81 provinces on 31 March 2024. ^[1] A total of 30 metropolitan and 1,363 district municipal mayors, alongside 1,282 provincial and 21,001 municipal councilors were elected, in addition to numerous local non-partisan positions such as neighborhood representatives ( muhtars) and elderly people's councils.

The elections took place ten months after the 2023 parliamentary and presidential elections, where the Nation Alliance opposition coalition suffered an unexpected narrow defeat to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's governing People's Alliance. This was despite an ongoing economic crisis and rapidly rising inflation. Following the defeat, the opposition six-party coalition dissolved, with the main opposition parties Republican People's Party (CHP) and Good Party (İYİ) fielding separate candidates for effectively all mayoral positions. This was the first nationwide election to be contested by the CHP's new leader Özgür Özel, who had successfully challenged his predecessor Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu for the position in November 2023.

The Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM), which succeeded the People's Democratic Party (HDP) as Turkey's principal Kurdish minority rights party, fielded its own candidates in many western metropoles, despite having previously withdrawn candidates in favor of the Nation Alliance.

The results were described as a "spectacular upset" victory for the opposition CHP, ^[2] which despite the lack of any electoral pacts managed to retain all but one of its metropolitan mayoralties, while winning three more. In particular, the party's candidates in Turkey's largest city Istanbul and capital Ankara, Ekrem İmamoğlu and Mansur Yavaş, were re-elected by landslide 51% and 60%, respectively. Both mayors also won majorities in their respective metropolitan councils, giving them significantly more powers than their previous terms, and are now seen as potential presidential contenders for the the next Turkish presidential election. ^{[ citation needed]} The CHP also won many unexpected victories in areas that had been under government control for the previous two decades, including Bursa, Balıkesir, Manisa, Kütahya, Adıyaman, Amasya, Kırıkkale, Kilis and Denizli. The party also managed to win swathes of districts within many provinces, many of which delivered vote swings of over 30% in the CHP's favor. Overall, the CHP won 35 of Turkey's 81 provincial capitals, with the People's Alliance winning 24. ^[3]

This was the first nationwide election since 1977 where the CHP came first in the popular vote, and the first election where the AK Party did not come first since its foundation in 2001. Nevertheless, the AK Party retained a narrow plurality in the number of district mayoralties won, and the People's Alliance scored small but notable victories against the CHP in Hatay and Kırklareli. The leader of the opposition Good Party (İYİ), Meral Akşener, announced her pending resignation after her party almost halved its share of the popular vote. ^[4]

Background

2019 elections

During the local elections of 2019, the opposition parties had formed alliances in key races, and had narrowly defeated the government in the two of the biggest cities in Turkey, namely Istanbul and Ankara. The election in Istanbul was won by a margin smaller than 0.2%, which the government successfully petitioned for a re-run. Τhіѕ сulmіnаtеd іn thе mауοrаl еlесtіοn οf Јunе 2019, whісh thе οррοѕіtіοn wοn іn а lаndѕlіdе.

2023 elections

The elections took place nine months after the 2023 parliamentary and presidential elections, where most parties opposed to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan rallied behind the leader of the Republican People's Party, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, including the center-right Good Party (İYİ) and the pro-Kurdish Green Left Party (YSP) (now renamed to Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM)). Erdoğan, despite the predictions of most surveys, was narrowly reelected. This was despite an ongoing economic crisis and rapidly rising inflation. Following the defeat, the opposition six-party coalition was dissolved by İYİ Party.^{[ citation needed]}

Election of Özgür Özel as the leader of CHP

After the electoral defeat, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu remained as the leader of CHP despite calls for him to resign. This culminated in the 2023 congress, where he was ousted by the deputy leader of the parliamentary group of CHP, Özgür Özel, supported by the mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem İmamoğlu.^{[ citation needed]}

Candidates and alliances

People's Alliance

The governing AKP and their main partner MHP entered the election in a partnership, where they endorsed each others' candidates in key districts.^{[ citation needed]}

AKP nominated Murat Kurum, Member of Parliament for Istanbul (I) electoral district and former Minister of Transport, for the mayoral election in Istanbul, which was endorsed by MHP. In Ankara, the alliance nominated the mayor of the district of Keçiören, Turgut Altınok. ^[5]

CHP

The main opposition CHP, which had won Ankara and Istanbul in 2019 nominated the same mayors for a second term. Thus, Ekrem İmamoğlu was nominated for the municipality of Istanbul, and Mansur Yavaş was nominated in Ankara.

İYİ Party

After the 2023 elections, İYİ leader Meral Akşener, along with the party's executive committee, refused to cooperate with CHP like they did in 2019. This was despite the CHP repeatedly offering an alliance with them. ^{[6] [7]}

Political parties participating in the election

General information about the parties that meet the conditions to participate in the election as of 2 January 2024 is listed here. ^{[8] [9]} The Innovation Party announced that it would not participate in the election. ^[10] The places of 35 political parties on the ballot paper were announced by the YSK on 27 January 2024. ^[11]

Because of long-running court cases the Green Party and the Humanity and Freedom Party were not included in the ballot. ^{[12] [13]: 38}

Security concerns and incidents

Around 594,000 security personnel were deployed nationwide to ensure the regular conduct of the election. ^[14]

On 10 February, gunmen opened fire at a campaign event in the Küçükçekmece district municipality of Istanbul for AKP mayoral candidate Aziz Yeniay, critically injuring one person. Seventeen people were arrested in connection with the attack. ^[15]

On 10 March, 33 people suspected of involvement with Islamic State were arrested in police raids in Sakarya Province on suspicion of plotting attacks ahead of the election. Authorities also recovered weapons, cash and "organizational documents". ^[16]

On election day, one person was killed and 11 others were injured following a dispute over the election of a neighborhood administrator in Diyarbakır, while six people were injured in clashes in Şanlıurfa Province. ^[14]

Results

Map

Ankara

Kırklareli

Edirne

Tekirdağ

Çanakkale

Balıkesir

Bursa

Yalova

Istanbul

Kocaeli

Sakarya

Düzce

Zonguldak

Bolu

Bilecik

Eskişehir

Kütahya

Manisa

İzmir

Aydın

Muğla

Denizli

Burdur

Uşak

Afyon

Isparta

Antalya

Konya

Mersin

Karaman

Aksaray

Kırşehir

Kırıkkale

Çankırı

Karabük

Bartın

Kastamonu

Sinop

Çorum

Yozgat

Nevşehir

Niğde

Adana

Hatay

Osmaniye

K. Maraş

Kayseri

Sivas

Tokat

Amasya

Samsun

Ordu

Giresun

Erzincan

Malatya

Gaziantep

Kilis

Şanlıurfa

Adıyaman

Gümüşhane

Trabzon

Rize

Bayburt

Erzurum

Artvin

Ardahan

Kars

Ağrı

Iğdır

Tunceli

Elazığ

Diyarbakır

Mardin

Batman

Siirt

Şırnak

Bitlis

Bingöl

Muş

Van

Hakkari

Click the province names to see the results.

Changes in control

The list below shows the parties governing the capitals of the 81 provinces before and after the local elections. Provinces in bold denote metropolitan municipalities.

Key races

Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu   51.14% Murat Kurum   39.59% Others   9.27% Winner: Ekrem İmamoğlu, CHP Margin: 11.55%, 2.34 pp       CHP HOLD	Ankara Metropolitan Mayor Mansur Yavaş   60.38% Turgut Altınok   31.69% Others   7.93% Winner: Mansur Yavaş, CHP Margin: 28.69%, 24.88 pp       CHP HOLD	Izmir Metropolitan Mayor Cemil Tugay   48.96% Hamza Dağ   37.06% Others   13.98% Winner: Cemil Tugay, CHP Margin: 11.90%, 7.50 pp       CHP HOLD
Bursa Metropolitan Mayor Mustafa Bozbey   47.62% Alinur Aktaş   38.35% Others   14.03% Winner: Mustafa Bozbey, CHP Margin: 9.27%, 11.86 pp       CHP GAIN from AK PARTY	Antalya Metropolitan Mayor Muhittin Böcek   48.64% Hakan Tütüncü   40.03% Others   11.33% Winner: Muhittin Böcek, CHP Margin: 8.61%, 4.26 pp       CHP HOLD

Full list

Note: AK Party is abbreviated "AKP" and Yeniden Refah is abbreviated "YRP" here for visualisation purposes. Metropolitan municipalities are in bold.

Reactions

President Erdoğan acknowledged the AKP's electoral losses but said that it would mark "not an end for us but rather a turning point", adding that he would respect the result, "correct our mistakes and redress our shortcomings". The CHP’s Özgür Özel praised voters, saying that they had established a "new political order" in Turkey leading to "a new political climate". ^{[17] [14]} İYİ leader Meral Akşener called for an extraordinary party congress amid demands for her resignation. ^[18]

Analysis

This was the first election since the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP)'s establishment in 2001 that it did not come first in a national election, with the CHP winning 37.8% of the vote compared to the AKP's 35.5%. It was the first nationwide election since 1977 in which the CHP came first. Commentators compared the vote to the 1989 local election, where the centre-left opposition at the time had scored significant victories against long-standing right-wing governments and came first in the popular vote. Nevertheless, the People's Alliance did score some victories against the opposition, taking the traditionally opposition-leaning mayoralties of Hatay and Kırklareli, and narrowly won a plurality of district municipalities. ^[3]

The smaller centre-right opposition İYİ Party performed poorly across the country, coming sixth in terms of popular vote and losing over half its vote share. Its leader, Meral Akşener, called an extraordinary party congress but did not announce whether she would run again for the leadership. Meanwhile, the Islamist conservative New Welfare Party (YRP) came third with over 6% of the vote, winning many municipalities in conservative areas from the AKP. The pro-Kurdish DEM Party marginally improved their share of the vote, despite some calls for boycotts in their traditional strongholds due to the likelihood of mayors being forcibly removed from office by the Interior Ministry on charges of supporting separatist terrorism. The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the AKP's junior alliance partner, lost votes but retained control of many key municipalities that it had won in the previous election. ^[3]

Described as an "electoral disaster" for President Erdoğan, commentators speculated that any intention by the government to amend the constitution to extend his presidential term would likely be put on hold. ^[2] Given the scale of their victories, both İmamoğlu and Yavaş are widely seen as possible opposition candidates for the next Turkish presidential election, ^[19] which the government refused to bring forward in light of the results despite speculation over early elections. ^[20]

Canceled annulment

On 2 April, authorities annulled the victory of DEM’s Abdullah Zeydan, who won more than 55% of the vote in the mayoral election in Van and declared his rival, Abdullah Arvas from the AKP, the winner despite garnering only 27% of the vote. ^[21] The decision led to anti-government protests in Van and Istanbul, as well as a rally in Ankara. ^[22] The CHP sent members to Van in support. ^[23] Tuncer Bakırhan of the DEM called the reversal a "political coup" ^[22] while the party referred to it as "unlawful and illegitimate". ^[24] The following day, the Supreme Election Board heard Zeydan's appeal and reinstated him as the winner. ^[25]

Notes

References