Local election decision from the Workers' Party of Turkey! What will they do in Istanbul and Ankara?

Turkey has entered an election atmosphere. Political parties have accelerated their efforts for the local elections on March 31.

The roadmap for the local elections of the Workers' Party of Turkey (TİP), which received approximately 1 million votes in the May 14 general elections and sent 4 deputies to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, has begun to clarify.

According to the report by Onur Öncü from TELE1, TİP held its Central Executive Board (MYK) meeting on the local election agenda and sent the resulting text from the MYK to the Party Assembly (PM). Accordingly, TİP will initially enter the elections with its own logo and candidates in Metropolitan Municipalities and District Municipalities such as Bursa, Denizli, Erzurum, Gaziantep, Kayseri, Konya, Malatya, Kahramanmaraş, Şanlıurfa, Ordu, Samsun, Tekirdağ, and Trabzon.

NO CANDIDATES WILL BE NOMINATED IN MUNICIPALITIES WHERE TRUSTEES WERE APPOINTED

TİP will not nominate candidates in the Diyarbakır, Mardin, and Van Metropolitan Municipalities, which were won by the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in the 2019 local elections but were later assigned trustees by the Ministry of Interior.

ISTANBUL AND ANKARA WILL BE 'REVIEWED'

In the circular sent to the PM following the MYK meeting, TİP decided to determine its candidates in many provinces, including Istanbul and Ankara—which were won from the AKP in the 2019 local elections—but also decided to re-evaluate its own candidates based on the profiles of other candidates to be determined by the opposition in these cities. The Metropolitan municipalities whose decisions will be reviewed in the future are as follows: Istanbul, Ankara, İzmir, Adana, Antalya, Aydın, Balıkesir, Eskişehir, Hatay, Muğla, and Mersin.

LEFT ALLIANCE AT THE FOREFRONT

TİP has been holding local election workshops and meetings in various parts of Turkey for a long time. Most recently, on December 9-10, a Local Governments workshop was organized in the Defne district of Hatay with the Labor Party (EMEP), Halkevleri, Kaldıraç, the Socialist Assemblies Federation (SMF), and the Social Freedom Party (TÖP). Following this workshop, a decision was made to establish a "Left Alliance" for the March 31, 2024 local elections, and a decision was reached to enter the elections in Hatay's Defne district under the TİP banner.

According to the result from the TİP MYK, the Left Alliance will enter the elections in the Defne and Samandağ districts of Hatay, the center and towns of Erzincan, and the Damal, Hanak, and Göle districts of Ardahan.

On the other hand, applications for mayoral and municipal council memberships in 24 provinces and 281 electoral districts have been extended until Monday, January 15.