WAVE OF PROTESTS AGAINST SAUDI CROWN PRINCE SPREADS TO TUNISIA, ARGENTINA
The AK Party’s candidates in most provinces for the local elections were announced as of yesterday. The candidates in particularly critical provinces like Ankara and İzmir drew attention for their experienced profiles within Turkish politics
HUNDREDS of people protested in the Tunisian capital Tunis yesterday against Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) over Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder case. Meanwhile, ahead of MBS’s participation in the G20 summit in Argentina on Friday, a rights group asked Argentina to use a war crimes clause in its constitution to investigate his role in possible crimes against humanity regarding the war in Yemen and the murder of Khashoggi.
TIGHT race can be expected in Balıkesir, Eskişehir and Hatay provinces on March 31, with the tendency of nationalist voters being the main factor that will determine the winner.
Aside from former ministers, the list was dominated by provincial heads and incumbent mayors from the AK Party, which, according to pundits, indicates the importance given by the party to continuing with experienced figures.
On the list of names of mayoral candidates for 40 provinces announced by Erdoğan on Saturday, there were also four former ministers, including former Energy and Natural Resources Minister Hilmi Güler in Ordu, former Public Works and Housing Minister Mustafa Demir in Samsun, former family and social policies minister and incumbent mayor Fatma Şahin in Gaziantep and former Science, Industry and Technology Minister Faruk Özlü in Düzce. The efforts by the party to nominate strong figures have been translated as a move to ensure winning the majority of the municipalities on March 31, which has been seen as a test for the AK Party’s success with the new presidential government system in the country.
Ankara nominee Özhaseki is a former minister who currently serves as a deputy from central Kayseri province and AK Party vice chairman in charge of local administrations. He was a businessman in the textile sector in Kayseri and served as the mayor of the province for nearly 17 years between June 1998 and February 2015, when he resigned ahead of the parliamentary elections in June. In November 2015, Özhaseki was appointed the minister of environment and urban planning, a post he held until July 2018.
The Ankara electorate mostly consists of a conservative-nationalist voter base that has been pushing political parties to lean toward candidates on this end of the political spectrum. The AK Party has controlled Ankara since its candidate Melih Gökçek, a municipal-mogul who had been mayor of the province between 1994 and 2017, triumphed against the renowned social democratic politician Murat Karayalçın in 2004 with 55 percent of votes against 20.8 percent. The two competed in the 2009 local elections again and Gökçek clinched another victory with 38.5 percent votes while Karayalçın got 31.3 percent.
In the 2014 local elections, the CHP transferred former mayor of Ankara’s Beypazarı district, Mansur Yavaş, from the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), and nominated him against Gökçek, as part of a strategy to attract right-wing voters. Veteran Gökçek, however, left Yavaş behind in a fierce competition by garnering 44.8 percent of votes. The CHP candidate got 43.8 percent of votes.
Gökçek announced his resignation in October 2017, after serving for 23 years, amid the rejuvenation bid across the AK Party before the 2019 elections. The Ankara Municipal Council elected Mustafa Tuna, then-mayor of the Ankara’s Sincan district, as the new mayor after Gökçek’s resignation.
In the April 2017 referendum that saw Turkey shift to a new executive presidential system, the “Yes” votes in Ankara and Istanbul that were advocated by the AK Party narrowly exceeded the “No” votes, which were spearheaded by the opposition CHP. The result gave hope to the CHP administration to break the center-right hegemony in the two most populous Turkish provinces since the early 90s. However, MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli’s recent announcement on the continuation of the People’s Alliance in Ankara, Istanbul and İzmir has likely secured the AK Party’s victory, especially in the capital, according to pundits.
According to recent reports CHP Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has considered re-nominating Yavaş or give a joint nominee with the rightwing Good Party (İP), despite fierce opposition from the party organization. The CHP’s former Ankara candidate and its current deputy Murat Karayalçın said last week that the CHP’s candidate in Ankara “should be a party member, whereas Yavaş is not.”
AK PARTY PUSHES FOR VICTORY IN CHP STRONGHOLD OF İZMİR
The AK Party has nominated former Economy Minister and Denizli Deputy Nihat Zeybekci to vie for the mayor’s office in western İzmir province. He held the ministry post twice, from December 2013 to November 2015 and from May 2016 to July 2018.
Like Özhaseki, Zeybekci was also a businessman involved in the textile sector and served as the mayor of the Aegean province of Denizli between 2004 and 2011.
Unlike Ankara and Istanbul, a center-left hegemony has reigned in İzmir since the late 1990s. The former mayor of the province, Ahmet Priştina, who was elected from the center-left Democratic Left Party (DSP), had shifted to the CHP in 2003. He but died just a year after his victory in the 2004 lo- cal elections. After him, Aziz Kocaoğlu, a businessman and then-mayor of İzmir’s Bornova district, became mayor and has ruled the province since.
While the AK Party is looking for a victory in Izmir in the upcoming elections with the MHP’s support, CHP’s Kocaoğlu announced last month that he will not seek another term in the 2019 local elections. Pundits have said that if the CHP fails to substitute Kocaoğlu with a proper candidate, a cutthroat competition could be seen in the province in March 2019.
Kocaoğlu got 56.1 percent of the votes and secured a landslide victory in the 2009 local elections against the AK Party’s liberal-leaning candidate Taha Aksoy, who received 30.3 percent of the votes. In the last municipal elections in 2014, the current Parliament Speaker and the last Prime Minister of Turkey, Binali Yıldırım, was the AK Party’s mayoral candidate against Kocaoğlu. Even though AK Party votes increased to 35.92 percent, it was not enough to defeat the CHP that received 49.58 percent of the votes with Kocaoğlu. The MHP candidate came third with 8 percent of the votes.
Meanwhile, the AK Party and MHP have also voiced intentions to continue the People’s Alliance, established for the June 24 parliamentary and presidential elections, for the upcoming municipal elections. (incumbent governor of Van province) (provincial chairman) (provincial chairman)
MHP Chairman Bahçeli announced Saturday that his party will not nominate candidates for Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir, and instead, the MHP will support AK Party candidates.
Regarding the continuation of the People’s Alliance, Erdoğan said that technical discussions are ongoing with the MHP and he will conclude the process with Bahçeli. “Since we have mutual cooperation with MHP, there will be reciprocal gestures,” Erdoğan added, referring to the recent reports suggesting that the AK Party may support the MHP’s candidate in some western and southern provinces in exchange for MHP’s backing in metropolitan municipalities.
The People’s Alliance got the majority in Parliament with 52.6 percent of the votes in the general elections.
With the announcement of Özhaseki and Zeybekci, the ruling party seeks to sustain its longrunning reign in Ankara, while it will toil to turn the tide by gaining its first municipal victory in the CHP stronghold.
Even though the candidate for Turkey’s commercial and cultural capital Istanbul was not revealed at yesterday’s meeting, Yıldırım, is reported to be the top contender.