President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Wednesday promised sweeping changes and self-criticism at his ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) "in line with people’s demands" after the party suffered its first loss since 2001 in the March 31 local elections.
"Turkish people undoubtedly asked us to do a comprehensive, sincere and bold self-criticism on March 31 and the AK Party owes them to read the message correctly," Erdoğan told a cheering crowd of party members assembled for the first time since the local polls.
"Our distinctive quality is that we can analyze our rights and wrongs and realize the necessary development per the criticism and demands of our people," he added.
The ruling party won 74 mayoral seats in total on March 31, including for 28 metropolitan cities but it ceded 14 of the 22 cities it won in the 2019 elections to the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP).
Although the AK Party has won 54.3% of all metropolitan and district mayoral posts across Türkiye’s 81 provinces thanks to its alliance with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the CHP won 35 of Türkiye’s 81 provincial capitals, including Istanbul and Ankara, managing to take the lead in polls for the first time in decades.
Erdoğan has since acknowledged the failure to achieve success, the necessity for self-criticism and assured sweeping changes were due at his party. He has ordered his members to set up a council that will investigate and bring back to him a report outlining the causes of the party’s loss of voter support.
The party is also expected to produce a new winning formula, a new road map for its lawmakers and return to its reformist roots.
"Whatever comes out of the ballot box is valid and must be respected," Erdoğan said.
He bemoaned the deep plunge in voter turnout, which was down by almost 5 million people to 78.1% from 84.7% in 2019 and 86.9% in the 2023 elections, making it the lowest-participating local election in the past 20 years.
"This low participation has also affected our party’s votes. The willpower of nearly 16 million didn’t reflect in the elections," Erdoğan pointed out, promising the AK Party would "correctly read" why so many citizens opted not to vote.
According to preliminary surveys from the parties so far, economic conditions, fatigue from back-to-back elections and dissatisfaction with mayoral candidates were the main causes of voter abstention.
Erdoğan also blasted his opposition for "playing dirty games" over Hatay, one of the 11 southern provinces hit hardest by the February earthquakes last year.
After losing the city to AK Party candidate Mehmet Öntürk by a narrow margin, the CHP demanded a recount and repeat of the vote, accusing the province of accepting votes from dead people.
"The CHP has demonstrated its indigestion of national willpower once again through unimaginable lies," Erdoğan said, noting that his party would soon visit Hatay to thank them for their "firm stance."
"Reviving the earthquake zone will remain our top priority," he added.