CHP’s astounding victory confounds politicians, analysts and Yours Truly

TURKEY - In Brief 01 Apr 2024 by Atilla Yesilada

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With each passing hour, a different aspect of CHP’s local election victory emerges from the details of final tallies, confounding the political class, and of course humble analysts, like myself. I shall provide fuller account of the magnitude of the victory, focusing in this Brief on political and economic implications instead. After 2019 municipal elections, CHP mayors came to govern roughly 55% of the population. As of today, this ratio rose to a 84%!. Five largest cities in Turkey are now under CHP governance while the two comparative maps provide visual scope to the expanse of the victory: This is the picture in 2019, with CHP in red and AKP in orange: Source link here And, this is how the topography looks on April 1, 2024 Source link here CHP not only won more cities than AKP and MHP, robbing the former off 14 posts, it also extended its lead in the boroughs of Istanbul, Ankara as well as in a dozen Anatolian cities. So much so, that now Istanbul and Ankara municipal assemblies are controlled by a CHP majority, which means the respective incumbents would face fewer obstacles to passing legislation. Additionally, one of the two reasons for ousting Imamoglu via judicial plotting disappeared. If he is sacked his replacement will also be a CHP member. Of course Erdogan could still order him banned from politics, to get rid of the number one rival in the next presidential election. Defeat was not limited to AKP, MHP, too, lost some cities, while IYIP literally disappeared from the political map, winning only a singly city, namely Nevsehir. The rising star of this election is ultra-Islamist New Welfare Party, which won the cities of Yozgat and Sanliurfa, as well as scor...