The Good Party (IP) on Wednesday announced the party's Istanbul deputy, Buğra Kavuncu, as a candidate for Türkiye's largest metropolis in the upcoming local elections on March 31.
Speaking at her party's parliamentary group meeting, IP Chairwoman Meral Akşener made public the party's candidates for the provinces of Istanbul, Sakarya and Balıkesir, along with some other provincial and district candidates.
"Kavuncu came to me and said, 'I want to take Istanbul, succeed and rule it.' And I said 'OK.' Our candidate for Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality mayor is Buğra Kavuncu," she announced.
On the other side, IP Balıkesir deputy Turhan Çömez was announced as a candidate for the city.
The candidate for Sakarya mayor became Selçuk Kılıçaslan, the former provincial chairperson of the IP. It was also noted that Şeref Menteşe became the candidate for Tokat, Alper Yağcı for Afyonkarahisar, Erhan Ciğer for Amasya and Nihal Tümen as Karaman mayor.
Akşener had announced that her party would not ally with the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) for local elections after the opposition coalition lost May's general elections to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. She said previously that the IP would field their own candidates.
The Good Party was formed by dissidents of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), which is the main ally of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party). Yet, their ambition to establish a new nationalist front fell short of expectations as it only garnered less than 10% of the vote in legislative elections last May, compared to over 25% of CHP, the second party in the elections.
The CHP itself is No. 2 in Türkiye in terms of support but needs votes from other opposition parties to win in certain cities. The IP's decision, as well as the plan of its second-biggest ally, the pro-PKK YSP (Green Left Party), informally known as the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), to run its own candidates in March, is a major roadblock for the CHP to maintain its hold in Istanbul and Ankara. It won in the two key cities in 2019 over the AK Party for the first time in over two decades.