Hüseyin Benzer elected as acting mayor of Buca Municipality
Hüseyin Benzer has been elected as the acting mayor to replace Buca Mayor Görkem Duman, who was arrested as part of a bribery and corruption investigation conducted by the İzmir Chief Public Prosecutor's Office.
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In an extraordinary meeting held at the Buca Municipality Service Building Assembly Hall, CHP candidate Hüseyin Benzer and People's Alliance (Cumhur İttifakı) group candidate Veli Balyemez competed for the position.
The Buca Municipal Assembly consists of 27 CHP members and 18 People's Alliance members. During the operation, detention warrants were issued for 3 CHP council members; Burcu Er Durmaz was arrested, while Doğan Sarıkaya was released under judicial control. Mustafa Genç, who also has a detention warrant against him, is still being sought. Following the operation, the number of CHP council members eligible to vote dropped to 25.
The election was also attended by CHP İzmir Provincial Chair Çağatay Güç, CHP İzmir Deputy Deniz Yücel, İzmir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Cemil Tugay, and AKP İzmir Deputy Mahmut Atilla Kaya.
THREE-ROUND ELECTION
In the first round of the election, 29 votes were counted as valid and 14 as invalid. Hüseyin Benzer received 17 votes, and Veli Balyemez received 12. Since the two-thirds majority could not be reached, the election proceeded to a second round. In the second round, there were no defections from either party. Benzer received 25 votes and Balyemez received 18. As the required majority was still not reached, the election moved to a third round. In the final round, where a simple majority was sufficient, Hüseyin Benzer, who received 25 votes, was elected as the acting mayor.