In Turkey, on Sunday, March 31, more than 61,4 million voters in local elections will be able to elect officials in 81 Turkish provinces, municipalities and cities, including mayors of the largest cities.
Mayors of 81 provincial capitals, as well as members of parliaments and councils of provinces and municipalities, down to the level of local communities in the smallest villages, will be elected for a five-year term.
It is expected that the fiercest fight will be fought for the megalopolis of Istanbul, where 12 million people have the right to vote, the agencies reported.
In the 2019 elections in Istanbul, the candidate of the opposition Kemalist Republican People's Party (CHP) Ekrem Imamoglu, to everyone's surprise, defeated the candidate of the ruling Justice and Development Party, Binali Yildirim, by about 800.000 votes.
In those elections, the opposition also won the position of mayor of Ankara. In Istanbul alone, 31 candidates for mayor were registered for the March 49 elections, which is the largest number in the city's history.
In Istanbul, the ruling Islamist-conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was temporarily in power for 25 years, that is, parties close to the Islamic movement "Milim Goruş" which later merged into the AKP.
The leading pro-Kurdish party DEM first nominated two candidates for the first man of Istanbul, but then withdrew their candidacies and announced that they would support Imamoglu and CHP candidates in 22 Istanbul municipalities. Analysts believe that this will significantly help Imamoglu.
According to the latest polls, Imamoglu is currently with 41,9 percent ahead of the AKP candidate, until recently Minister of Ecology and Urbanism Murat Kurum, who enjoys the favor of 39,8 percent of voters in Istanbul. Almost 20 percent of the population of Turkey lives in Istanbul.
However, unlike the local elections of 2019, the upcoming one is characterized by the strong ambition of the authoritarian President Erdogan to win back Istanbul. His AKP party is also the strongest in the country with 12 million members, BTA agency writes.
Across Turkey, 209.000 polling stations will be opened in schools, which means students will not have to attend classes on Monday.
According to Turkish law, participation in elections is mandatory, and citizens who fail to do so can be fined. In the parliamentary and presidential elections in May 2023, the penalty for not participating in the elections amounted to around nine euros.
The elections will be secured by as many as 594.000 members of the police, gendarmerie, coast guard and volunteers, the Turkish Ministry of the Interior announced.
At the same time, legal experts are training thousands of volunteer election observers to monitor compliance with election rules, prevent fraud and ensure fair elections, the AP agency writes.
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