With 25 days to municipal elections, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan promoted the candidates of his Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in Malatya on Wednesday. Addressing a large crowd in the eastern province shaken by recent earthquakes, Erdoğan listed his government's and municipalities’ public services, particularly in rebuilding devastated areas, and sought support for the upcoming vote.

Malatya is an AK Party stronghold, with 72% of the vote for Erdoğan in last year’s presidential elections. As Erdoğan expressed his gratitude in his speech, he urged voters not to fall for promises of the main opposition Republican People’s Party's (CHP), which is accused of forming a secret alliance with a party known for its ties to the PKK terrorist group.

"The people of Malatya have dignity. They won’t tolerate those who deviate from their path and boast about cooperation with those linked to Qandil," he said, referring to the northern Iraqi area where PKK leadership hides.

He said Malatya would not "forget those who developed their city with infrastructure" and "those who gave them hope after earthquakes." The president noted that they started delivering new homes to some 70,000 people who lost their residences in the Feb. 6, 2023 earthquakes and so far, 6,181 houses have been delivered.

"We will not rest until we erase all the traces of the earthquake," he said.

Erdoğan also criticized former AK Party members nominated by the opposition parties. "Everyone is entitled to run, but we cannot tolerate those who try to ensure that we will lose and those who defame us," he said, referring to the candidates with slim chances of victory in some swing constituencies critical for the AK Party and the CHP. Erdoğan implied that their candidacy played into the hands of the opposition candidates.

The president lamented "dirty politics that recently resurfaced" but added that he believed the nation would not approve politicians "resorting to political blackmail and empty promises." He then went on to list what the municipalities and the governments under the AK Party did for Malatya, from modern roads and new dams to hydropower plants and enormous urban parks. He said they would invest more in Malatya, noting that they were now working on boosting employment in earthquake-hit provinces, including Malatya. He said the leading defense company ASELSAN would soon build a facility for electronics repair in the province.

Erdoğan said Türkiye overcame a great number of challenges in recent years, from "dozens of terrorist attacks, a coup attempt and lastly, earthquake disaster." "It is difficult to recover from the heavy toll on our cities. It would take decades for another country to recover but thank God, our nation’s unity helped us overcome the disaster of the century," Erdoğan said, in reference to the 2023 earthquakes.

"We cannot bring back those we lost, but we have the will and resolve to put back every loss we suffered (in the earthquakes). Just as we did in the face of other challenges, we will not let the earthquake veer us from our goals. We will continue working until Türkiye takes its place among the world’s biggest countries in terms of diplomacy, economy and military power," he said.

The municipal elections are a significant test for the government and the opposition. Thirty-four political parties will vie for votes in 81 provinces.

Almost all parties unveiled their candidates for mayor and municipal assembly seats, but the Supreme Election Board (YSK) declared the final list on Sunday. A campaign ban will come into force on March 21.

More than 61 million people are eligible to vote, and 1 million young voters will cast their ballots for the first time in this election. More than 50% of the voters are women, while men make up 49.1% of the electorate, according to the statistics. More than 3.3 million of voters are aged 75 and above. Most of the electorate is in 30 big cities, while more than 13.5 million voters will cast their ballots in 51 other cities.

Voters in opposition-run municipalities mostly complain about the lack of municipal services, such as problems in water utilities that lead to frequent water outages and traffic issues stemming from troubles in road construction and improvement of existing roads.