Turkish president and leader of Justice and Development (AK) Party on Saturday announced the list of 40 mayoral candidates for the upcoming local elections in the country.
Erdoğan began his words by welcoming the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chairman Devlet Bahçeli's decision to support the AK Party in Turkey's three largest cities of Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir in the elections scheduled for March 31. "I'd like to thank Mr. Bahçeli for once expressing his commitment to the People's Alliance once again today; and for his decision to support AK Party in 3 metropolises," Erdoğan told AK Party executives, candidates and supporters gathered for the event at the Haliç Congress Center in Istanbul.
Bahçeli had made the announcement hours before Erdoğan's speech at his party's camp to determine local elections candidates and tactics in southern province of Antalya.
Erdoğan announced 40 candidates for 14 metropolitan and 26 city municipalities. The president was widely expected to announce the candidates for the country's culture and commercial capital Istanbul, capital Ankara and the western Izmir province, however, the party decided to postpone their announcement after Bahçeli's remarks.
The AK Party and the MHP joined forces in the form of the People's Alliance for the June 24 presidential and parliamentary elections. They will reportedly announce joint candidates in specific provinces to minimize risks of losing against other opposition parties.
Erdoğan said the party will reveal its election manifesto and candidates for the remaining provinces in December.
The results of an intraparty tendency survey for the elections were submitted to Erdoğan shortly after AK Party delegates completed voting Sunday. Some 127,148 delegates from 81 provinces voted in the online survey, which was used for the first time. Around 90.33 percent of all the delegates participated in the survey. The highest participation of delegates was witnessed in Istanbul - at 98 percent.
Here are the candidates announced by President Erdoğan on Saturday:
Adıyaman: Süleyman Kılınç
Amasya: Cafer Özdemir (incumbent since 2009)
Antalya: Menderes Türel (incumbent since 2014, served between 2004-2009)
Ardahan: Yunus Baydar (former province chairman)
Artvin: Mehmet Kocatepe (incumbent since 2014)
Bartın: Yusuf Ziya Aldatmaz
Batman: Murat Güneştekin
Bayburt: Fatih Yumak (province chairman)
Bitlis: Nesrullah Tanğlay (province chairman)
Bolu: Fatih Metin (deputy trade minister)
Burdur: Deniz Kurt (former province chairman)
Bursa: Alinur Aktaş (incumbent since 2017, took over in rejuvenation bid)
Denizli: Osman Zolan (incumbent since 2011)
Diyarbakır: Cumali Atilla (incumbent since 2016, appointed trustee)
Düzce: Faruk Özlü (former science, industry and technology minister)
Elazığ: Şahin Şerefoğulları
Erzurum: Mehmet Sekmen (incumbent since 2014)
Gaziantep: Fatma Şahin (incumbent since 2014, former family and social policies minister)
Giresun: Aytekin Şenlikoğlu (province chairman)
Gümüşhane: Ercan Çimen (incumbent since 2014)
Hakkari: Cüneyt Epcim (incumbent deputy governor, mayor since 2016, appointed trustee)
Kahramanmaraş: Hayrettin Güngör
Karabük: Burhanettin Uysal
Kastamonu: Tahsin Babaş (incumbent since 2014)
Kayseri: Memduh Büyükkılıç (incumbent
Kırıkkale: Mehmet Saygılı (incumbent since 2014)
Kırklareli: Burak Süzülmüş
Kilis: Mehmet Abdi Bulut (served between 2004-2014)
Kocaeli: Tahir Büyükakın (incumbent governor of Bilecik province)
Malatya: Selahattin Gürkan
Nevşehir: Rasim Arı (head of Youth and Sports General Directorate)
Niğde: Emrah Özdemir (former province chairman)
Ordu: Hilmi Güler (former energy and natural resources minister)
Rize: Rahmi Metin
Samsun: Mustafa Demir (former public works and housing minister)
Sinop: Ali Çöpçü (province chairman)
Şanlıurfa: Zeynel Abidin Beyazgül (former province chairman)
Şırnak: Mehmet Yarka
Tekirdağ: Mestan Özcan
Yalova: Yusuf Ziya Öztabak (province chairman)
