52 candidates to officially run for Istanbul mayorship

52 names have officially applied to run for Istanbul mayorship in the local elections with 30 of them being independent. Among the pool of candidates, the race is expected to be neck and neck between Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, from the main opposition CHP, and the ruling AKP’s candidate Murat Kurum who is a former minister.

Wednesday February 21 2024 03:26 pm

Duvar English

52 candidates will run for Istanbul mayorship in the local elections to be held on March 31 as the official application deadline ended on Feb. 20.

22 out of 52 candidates have been nominated by a party, whereas 30 names will compete as an independent candidate.

The candidate list includes current mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) candidate Murat Kurum who is also a deputy and former Urbanization Minister, the opposition İYİ (Good) Party’s candidate Buğra Kavuncu, the oppposition Peoples' Equality and Democracy (DEM) Party’s co-candidates Meral Danış Beştaş and Murat Çepni.

Apart from them, the opposition far-right Victory (Zafer) Party, the opposition Homeland (Memleket) Party, the opposition Democracy and Progress (DEVA) Party, government-ally New Welfare Party (YRP) also fielded candidates for Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality.

Taylan Yıldız, who was an Istanbul Municipal Council member between 2019 and 2023 from the İYİ Party, will run as an independent candidate.

Among the pool of candidates, the race is expected to be neck and neck between Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, from the main opposition CHP, and the ruling AKP’s candidate Murat Kurum who is a former minister.

In the 2019 local elections, the İYİ Party and HDP did not field mayoral candidates for Istanbul and Ankara metropolitan municipalities, making the race between the AKP and the CHP, which ended in a CHP victory.

In March 2019, İmamoğlu received 48.77 percent of votes in the local elections, followed by AKP’s Binali Yıldırım who stayed at 48.61 percent.

The Supreme Election Council (YSK) did not recognize İmamoğlu's initial victory and ordered a repeat vote, arguing not all the chairs and members of the ballot box committees were from public officials. However, the YSK did not cancel the municipal council or district municipal election results, which were voted on the same day.

The decision stirred anger among opposition voters and İmamoğlu received 54.22 percent of the votes in the repeat election in June.

İmamoğlu was the first politician to have defeated the ruling AKP in the race for the Istanbul Municipality in 2019 since 1994.