Pro-PKK party dims opposition alliance hopes with Istanbul pick
The pro-PKK Green Left Party (YSP), informally known as the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), a successor of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), revealed on Sunday that it would nominate its own candidate for Istanbul, Türkiye’s most populated city, for upcoming municipal elections.
The party’s spokesperson Ayşegül Doğan announced the decision at a news conference that will likely deal a blow to the alliance hope of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP). The CHP has been courting the YSP, as well as Good Party (IP), ahead of the March elections where people will elect mayors for 81 provinces and their districts.
Doğan told reporters after a meeting of the party in the capital Ankara that they would announce the names of candidates for Istanbul and other cities by Feb. 9.
Speculation has swirled that Başak Demirtaş, whose husband Selahattin Demirtaş is a former party co-president but has been in jail since 2016, will be nominated. Doğan said her name was in the pool of candidates but consultations were still ongoing. Selahattin Demirtaş was convicted of “terrorist propaganda” and sentenced to up to 142 years in jail.
The pro-PKK party has held talks with CHP leader Özgür Özel over a potential alliance earlier but talks apparently fell through, though DEM, then known as the HDP, endorsed CHP candidate Ekrem Imamoğlu in the Istanbul elections in 2019. Imamoğlu runs again in the upcoming vote and his main rival will be Murat Kurum, former minister of environment and urban planning nominated by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party).
The party claims clout in working-class neighborhoods of Istanbul and other big cities and is among the parties credited for Imamoğlu’s unprecedented win that ended long AK Party tenure in the city’s town hall. Imamoğlu already lost IP support after that party’s chair Meral Akşener vowed to field their own candidates, despite the fallout with several prominent names and co-founders of IP.
Istanbul, a metropolis with a diverse array of voters, is viewed as key for future general elections as voters’ choices in municipal elections often go hand in hand with general elections, except in certain opposition strongholds. Imamoğlu himself courts voters by portraying himself as an everyman candidate who “turned the fortunes of Istanbul” while his critics blame him for focusing on PR work instead of addressing the city’s major problems, particularly traffic congestion and emergency response in times of disasters. Imamoğlu alienated some conservative voters when he met Başak Demirtaş after his election victory while trying to woo the same conservative votes by reciting verses from the Quran in several events.
Kurum last week claimed polls are placing him ahead of Imamoğlu in the mayoral race.
Kurum said he overtook incumbent mayor Imamoğlu by 1.5 points in polls conducted a week before he launched his campaign last month. “Before that, I was two points behind him,” Kurum told a private television interview on Wednesday night. “You can see the same results in the CHP’s surveys, too,” he said. “They believe they’re 8-10 points ahead of us. They’re trying to put themselves in a different position and chasing after irrelevant matters because they cannot focus on Istanbul,” Kurum argued. He added: “Without resting on our oars, we will make our true municipalism vision come true with all Istanbulites on March 31.”
Some 64 million eligible voters are set to elect mayors and local administrators in 81 provinces in March this year, but the mayoral race for Istanbul and the capital Ankara, both of which have been run by the CHP since it clinched a surprise victory in the 2019 elections for the first time in over two decades, hog most of the public attention.
The AK Party, eager to recapture the two key cities from the opposition, unveiled its election declaration last week as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan vowed to “save Türkiye from a whirlpool of failures by delivering true municipalism.”
While the party is relying on Turgut Altınok against incumbent Mayor Mansur Yavaş of the CHP in Ankara, the race for Istanbul is flashier since the city is considered, politically, the most important administrative region in the country.
Last week, Kurum kicked off his campaign in a big ceremony, promising to alleviate Istanbul’s notorious traffic congestion, public transport delays and malfunctions that became a major source of residents’ discontent, and to provide safe housing in the 39 districts of Istanbul, which largely sits on a fault line.
His opponent, Imamoğlu, who is facing a political ban in an ongoing lawsuit, has lost some of his luster since he won Istanbul with the backing of smaller opposition parties in a controversial rerun in the 2019 elections.
After the opposition lost to Erdoğan’s ruling coalition in the general elections, he mounted a coup at the CHP last summer to replace Chairperson Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu with his favored man, Özgür Özel. But his meddling in Özel’s affairs has deepened the rift at Türkiye’s oldest political party, with insiders lamenting quarrels between the mayor and the chair on the candidate selection process.
All eligible 35 parties must submit their candidates to the authorities by Feb. 20 at the latest. Campaigning and certain election bans will take effect on March 21, a week before the polls.
Elsewhere, the New Welfare Party (YRP) announced it would not join any alliance for municipal elections. Party Chair Fatih Erbakan told reporters on Saturday that they would nominate their own candidates in big cities including Istanbul, the capital Ankara and Izmir, and their names would be announced on Feb. 10. The YRP was a member of People’s Alliance led by the AK Party and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) in last year’s general elections. The AK Party sought to renew the alliance for the municipal elections but Erbakan said “95% of our party members oppose an alliance for municipal elections.” AK Party officials held several talks with the YRP for an alliance and their most recent meeting was last week.
Erbakan, son of AK Party leader and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s political mentor, Necmettin Erbakan, said the majority of their party members had also opposed the general election alliance but they greenlit it anyway for the good of the country. The YRP includes former AK Party members and enjoys the support of voters disillusioned with the Felicity Party (SP), which portrays itself as heir to the late Necmettin Erbakan. It surpassed small parties old and new when it won more than 2.8% of the vote in legislative elections, just below the YSP. Fatih Erbakan said the AK Party’s proposal for a municipal election alliance was not “fair and balanced.” Rumors have been swirling that the party was looking for endorsement by the AK Party for their own candidates in at least two cities and for support for YRP town assembly candidates elsewhere.
The YRP’s decision appears to weaken the AK Party in the Istanbul mayoral race but it will not serve CHP either as Imamoğlu is expected to lose the crucial support of YSP.
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