Municipal elections

The contribution of local administrations, which ensure that services are provided at the local level in our country, to the development of democratic life is no longer a matter of debate today.

In the Constitution of the Republic of Turkey, local administrations are regulated separately from the central administration. Article 127 establishes that local administrations are public legal entities, their decision-making bodies are elected by the public, the acquisition and loss of the status of elected bodies are subject to judicial review, local administrations are provided with revenue sources proportional to their duties, and the central administration possesses administrative tutelage authority over local administrations within the principles and procedures specified by law.

Local administrations are autonomous organizations based on the principle of decentralization. Today, considering the indispensable contribution of local administrations to democratic life and their great importance in meeting common local needs, regulations are being made worldwide to grant them an increasingly higher degree of decision-making and operational freedom in administrative and financial areas.

In this context, while developed countries tend to narrow the central administration's tutelage oversight over local administrations, in Turkey, tutelage oversight has developed in a way that hinders the operational capacity and creativity of local administrations.

Today, beyond the protective nature of tutelage oversight, it is a necessity to achieve a balanced distribution of duties between the general administration and local administrations. In this regard, the election of local administration bodies by the public ensures public participation in and oversight of the administration.

In our country, while both the decision-making and executive bodies of villages and municipalities are elected by the public, only the general decision-making bodies of special provincial administrations are elected by the public. The number of municipalities, which were established to meet the common local needs of towns and their residents, has increased rapidly in our country since 1950, and consequently, their importance within local administrations has reached an undeniable level today.

Given this stated importance, the sound election of both the decision-making and executive bodies of municipalities will contribute to the development of democratic life at the local level, in addition to the benefit of the townspeople.

In the 2024 local government elections, alongside all kinds of black propaganda, it is being explicitly stated that no contribution will be provided by the central administration to opposition-held municipalities.

Indeed, how the work of municipalities won by opposition parties has been obstructed and how their revenue sources have been restricted since the 2019 local government elections is a matter that everyone knows and sees.

While both the 1982 Constitution and the Municipal Law No. 5393 clearly state the conditions under which municipal mayors and council members acquire and lose their status and that this is subject to judicial review, following the coup attempt on July 15, 2016, the authority to "appoint trustees" was granted to the tutelage authority via Decree-Law No. 674.

The administration's practice of appointing trustees has begun to become increasingly widespread as a subjective practice that renders municipalities dysfunctional.

Both the rhetoric that mayors belonging to different parties will not work in harmony with the government, and the suspicion and expectation that trustees will be appointed to opposition municipalities, create a fear among the public that their will will be undermined or even usurped.

In a world where the effectiveness, power, and importance of local governments in public administration have increased along with the globalization process, and where the autonomy of local governments and local democracy practices are developing, we can do nothing but feel saddened by the situation of our country.