The ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AK Party) Istanbul mayoral candidate Murat Kurum described the situation of Istanbul’s metropolis as an interregnum period during which services were lacking under the main opposition’s control.
Speaking at the opening of the Çekmeköy-Taşdelen Alemdağ bridge crossing in Istanbul, Kurum said: "Istanbul has undergone an interregnum under an unskilful, incapable and lazy administration. The city suffers every day and unfortunately, this precious city is being wasted day by day in the hands of a handful of ignorant people."
Kurum reiterated that the people of Istanbul do not want to live with the stress of traffic everyday, he promised true municipal services if elected.
"The current CHP administration has condemned these people to a transportation problem. They wasted 288 hours of a year and three years of the lives of Istanbulites. They have not opened a metro tender in five years," Kurum pointed out, denying the Republican People's Party's (CHP) claims that most metro lines were built during their administration.
He said that the current administration only constructed 8 kilometers (4.97 miles) of 47 kilometers of metro lines.
"When this administration took office in 2019, the Mahmutbey-Mecidiyeköy line was 99% completed. We did 99% of it, he completed 1%. (Some) 70% of the Dudullu-Bostancı line was completed. (And) 50% of the Rumelihisarı funicular was completed. So, the project he (CHP’s Ekrem Imamoğlu) said he had ‘finished’ had already come to its end."
Critics accuse Imamoğlu of a string of failures stemming from lingering problems in mass transportation, such as vehicles not properly maintained, leading to delays in bus schedules. He is also under fire for not helming the crisis management in the city during times of chaos, such as a massive snowstorm in the past years and floods.
Kurum continued to say that with the money wasted, the transportation could have been solved as libraries could have been opened for the youth.
"They see Istanbul as rent. The work done is obvious. Burning buses, stranded metros, a transportation ordeal and an earthquake fear that is growing by the day ... this is their administration policy," he added.
If he wins, the AK Party candidate will expand the city's highways by 48% and railways also by 48% by 2034, easing the congestion on main routes and reducing the average commuting time from 64 to 34 minutes. Istanbul's metro network, too, would be extended from its current 328 kilometers (204 miles) to 650 kilometers by 2029 and ultimately 1,004 kilometers by 2034. Kurum is also looking to remove two major bus terminals to the peripheries of Istanbul to ease intracity traffic, extend the Metrobus line system that stretches from far-flung Beylikdüzü on the European side to Kadıköy on the Asian side and construct a parking lot that can accommodate up to 250,000 vehicles, with a 25% discount on fees.
Kurum promised to increase the metro lines twofold in the upcoming five years. It will reach 650 kilometers, he said.
The polls are taking place nearly a year after the presidential and parliamentary elections were held in May last year, and they seem to hold as much of a stake for the competing parties.
Türkiye’s local elections, recurring every five years, cover mayoral seats of metropolitan cities, provinces, provincial districts and towns, as well as mukhtars of villages and neighborhoods, board of alderman, and members of city councils and municipal boards.