Dr. Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak
The Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, Apr. 4, 2024
“… the fall of Üsküdar into secular hands and especially to a woman mayor who does not wear a hijab clearly marks the depth of the radical change.”
Although municipal elections are not considered a significant political inflection point, when it comes to Turkey they constitute genuine public approval tests for both the ruling government and the opposition.
Thus, the Turkish opposition’s landslide victory in the March 31 municipal elections is historic. With 37.4% of the vote, Turkey’s founding party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP) won a nationwide election for the first time in 47 years. With this historic achievement the party of Turkish secularism not only smashed its 25% glass-ceiling but at the same time secured its domination of the country’s major cities – the capital Ankara, Istanbul, and Izmir. Moreover, for the first time ever the CHP even managed to penetrate the conservative Central Anatolia region and gained control of conservative strongholds such as Kırşehir and Kırıkkale.
While in total the CHP has acquired 35 provincial municipalities, – out of 81 – the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP( won in only 24, with 35.7% of the vote. It is also noteworthy that the relatively low voter turnout (76.6%) compared to the high voter turnout (88.9%) in the last general elections also played in the opposition’s favor– especially in the provinces.
Given the tense nature of the election campaign, the political discourse during campaigning was not limited to regular local municipal issues such as housing, transportation, and environmental problems but rather expanded to Turkey’s chronic challenges such as dealing with the aftermath of the deadly 2023 earthquake, the deteriorating economy, and the alliances formed by the pollical parties to maximize their gains at the ballot box.
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