Battle for Lefkoşa
“PROGRESS and stability have been achieved . . . and now it is time for sustainable development” — so said Lefkoşa Mayor Mehmet Harmancı, who is seeking a second, four-year term on June 24.
Social Democratic Party (TDP) candidate Mr Harmancı rejected claims of mounting municipal debt, saying his authority would have “totally paid off” its 30 million TL bank debts on July 3 and had managed to build up reserve funds through making monthly payments of some 1 million TL.
“We have paid workers’ tax, salaries and social insurance premiums then managed to create a 10 million TL investment and increased our funds from 34TL to 68 million TL.”
They had also paid some 12.2 million TL — including 4.2 million TL outstanding from the previous adminis- tration — to pensioners and some 7.7 million TL to shopkeepers and construction companies.
The workforce had been reduced from 901 to 830, with no new staff taken on, and outstanding contributions inherited from his predecessor would be repaid after 2020 under legislation for restructuring local authority debt.
Talking about his plans for a new four-year term, he pledged to invest 35 million TL in Lefkoşa if reelected, and to tackle the city’s “traffic congestion problem”.
Mr Harmancı highlighted among “landmark schemes” of his four-year tenure the creation of the country’s only current refuge for battered women and their children; a “sharing kitchen” in the walled city to provide free hot meals to the poor, elderly and disabled; youth centres set up across the capital; a Without Obstacles unit for the disabled; and improved care at home for the elderly.
He reiterated his “firm position” against “human rights abuses in nightclubs” and hailed a landmark court judgment in April, pioneered by his new gender equality unit, that illegal prostitution was taking place there.
He also pointed to infrastructural upgrades including a new bridge between the Gelibolu and Marmara areas; connecting some 420 households to mains sewerage, with a further 6,000 buildings to follow suit; and ongoing road asphalting and landscaping.
Meanwhile, he dismissed claims of excessive water prices, saying the base tariffs of up to 13 tonnes covered “the amount used by 80 per cent of people in the capital”.
“Together, we managed to save [Lefkoşa] from bad times and together we will carry it to even better days,” he said.
“Our first goal was to reinstate its prestige, which had deteriorated under the previous administration. We managed to rebuild good relations between the people and the municipality with solution-focused strategies. People believed in us and we will keep doing our best for them.”