Municipal elections start in Turkey

Turkish voters go to the polls in nationwide local elections today. 48.665 million voters will vote at 177,050 polling stations around Turkey to elect 92 848 members of local administrative bodies.

The ballot boxes were opened at 7 a.m. in some provinces because of starting the summer time, APA reports. Turkish Supreme Election Organization announced 32 provinces on Saturday where the voting starts early an hour. The voting will be ended at 5 p.m. and first results will be publicized two hours later. 19 political parties are competing in the local elections. 16 metropolitan municipality mayors, 65 provincial municipality mayors, 892 district mayors, 1,974 small town mayors, 52,765 headmen, 3,284 members of municipal councils and 33,868 municipal assemblies will be elected, according to local media. More than 60 percent of the Turkey’s population live in the cities and therefore the elections of city municipalities are in the focus of attention. Melik Gokchek (AKP), Mansur Savash (MHP) and Murat Karayalchin (CHP) are running for the Ankara municipal mayor. In Istanbul, incumbent mayor of Istanbul metropolitan municipality Kadir Topbash (AKP) and Kemal Kilicdaroglu (CHP) are the main candidates for the Istanbul municipality mayor. Nurettin Aras (AKP), Ekber Yeshil (MHP) and Nuri Gunesh (DTP) are running for Igdir municipality. Incumbent Naif Elibeyoglu and Settar Kaya (MHP) have good chances to be elected in Kars.