Turkey elected 1,389 mayors in towns, districts and cities in Sunday’s local elections, but only 2.66 percent of them, or 37, were women, a Turkish research center announced, according to the Diken news website.
Among the 30 mayors elected in İstanbul, Ankara and İzmir, only three of them were women, while in the remaining cities only one female mayor was elected.
There will be 29 women mayors in 920 district municipalities, whereas in 386 towns only four women will serve in mayoral posts.
Fatma Şahin of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) won for a second term in the southeastern province of Gaziantep on Sunday.
Özlem Çerçioğlu of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) won the metropolitan municipality seat in Aydın, an Aegean province.
Four female mayors from CHP ranks and one from the AKP were elected in the districts of the Aegean province of İzmir.
The Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) nominated female co-mayor candidates in each city and province in which they ran.