There is speculation behind the scenes that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) will announce former environment minister Murat Kurum as its mayoral candidate to challenge current opposition mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu in İstanbul, BBC Turkish service reported on Friday.
Turkey is scheduled to hold local elections on March 31, 2024.
The AKP is “seeking retribution” for 2019, when the main opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) İmamoğlu ended the years-long AKP rule in İstanbul by defeating the AKP’s mayoral candidate twice in the local elections, BBC said. İmamoğlu won a rerun election by a larger margin than the first, which had been canceled due to supposed irregularities.
Turkish President and AKP leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s announcement on Thursday that the party will announce its mayoral candidate in İstanbul on January 7 and in Ankara on January 15 triggered a buzz in political circles.
According to BBC, backstage speculation anticipates that Kurum, who is currently an MP from the AKP, will be nominated as the party’s mayoral candidate in İstanbul.
Erdoğan reportedly chose Kurum taking into account public opinion polls and the campaign to be run for the upcoming election.
According to AKP sources, Erdoğan will focus the election campaign in İstanbul on urban rejuvenation and strengthening earthquake resilience in the city. Kurum’s experience with Turkey’s state-run housing authority, TOKİ, and his long service as minister of environment, urbanization and climate change make him a good candidate, the sources say.
The former minister was one of the five most preferred names in the AKP’s straw poll held on December 18. Others were Esenler district mayor Tevfik Göksu, former minister of transport and infrastructure and current Trabzon MP Adil Karaismailoğlu, Fatih district mayor Mehmet Ergun and current Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya.
In addition to İstanbul, mayoral candidates for around 30 other provinces may be announced on Sunday, according to AKP sources.
Erdoğan’s ruling AKP and its ally, the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), decided to extend their Public Alliance to the upcoming local elections.
The two parties will join forces in 30 major cities and 29 provinces. The AKP will field candidates in 28 of the 30 major cities, while the MHP will do the same in Manisa and Mersin.
A survey conducted by the Ankara-based MetroPoll revealed in late December that İmamoğlu is likely to secure re-election against three possible candidates to be nominated by the ruling AKP, one of them being Kurum.
According to the results of the survey, in a scenario in which Kurum runs against İmamoğlu, the mayor would defeat Kurum by a more than 14-point margin, with Kurum garnering 33.9 percent and İmamoğlu receiving 48.2 percent of the vote.