Ankara Mayor Yavaş says it will be his last term should he be re-elected

Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavaş, from the main opposition CHP, has stated that he would serve as mayor for the last time if re-elected in the upcoming municipal election.

Tuesday March 05 2024 11:08 am

Duvar English

Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavaş, from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), on March 3 said that it would be his last term should he be re-elected in the local election to be held on March 31.

Speaking in the Sincan district during an election campaign, Yavaş said he would step down after serving for one more term and “teaching Mansur Yavaş municipalism to Turkey.”

“Everyone will follow in our footsteps,” he added.

Yavaş also said the citizens would support him in the election “with record votes, it seems so,” according to the survey results.

Yavaş was elected as the Ankara Mayor in the local elections held in 2019 by gathering 50.93 percent of the votes in the capital city, beating the ruling AKP's candidate Mehmet Özhaseki who received 47.12 percent of the votes.

The CHP’s alliance partner İYİ (Good) Party, the AKP’s alliance partner Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), and the opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) did not field any candidates for Ankara mayorship in 2019.

Yavaş also served as Beypazarı district mayor between 1999-2009 from the MHP, and ran for the Ankara mayorship in the 2009 and 2014 elections, failing to assume the office.

For the 2024 election, 24 candidates are running for the Ankara mayorship, including AKP’s Turgut Altınok, İYİ Party’s Cengiz Topel Yıldırım, HDP successor DEM Party’s Gültan Kışanak and Öztürk Türkdoğan, the government ally New Welfare Party’s (YRP) Suat Kılıç.

Five of the candidates are running as independents.