Türkiye's main opposition party has named more mayoral candidates for the March local elections amid a quarrel between its leader and high-profile Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu over the selection process.
The Republican People's Party (CHP) on Wednesday announced mayor hopefuls for six more metropolitan cities, including the southern provinces Adana, Mersin and Aydın, as well as earthquake-stricken Hatay, while postponing the resort city of Antalya's candidate.
Incumbent mayors of all four cities will rerun in March polls, CHP spokesperson Deniz Yücel told reporters after a six-hour party council meeting in Ankara where tensions occasionally ran high between two lawmakers scuffling over a district mayor's office in Mersin.
Lütfü Savaş's re-nomination, however, has drawn widespread backlash, especially from Hatay residents who feel the mayor failed in his duties in the aftermath of last year's earthquakes that leveled thousands of buildings and claimed over 52,000 lives in 11 southern provinces.
Savaş is blamed for the damage and mismanagement in Hatay, which suffered the brunt of the disaster as aging weak buildings crumbled into dust, trapping thousands under the rubble.
Savaş is known for opposing urban transformation as an "imposition" and even holding a rally against the project in Hatay's Emek district, which was razed to the ground on Feb. 6.
The CHP defended the decision to hand Hatay to Savaş again as Yücel said: "There's no possibility of him withdrawing. There was great suffering in Hatay, and our mayor made every effort to heal these wounds."
For the Anatolian metropolitan Eskişehir, Ayşen Ünlüce, the secretary-general of the city's municipality, will be on the ballot to replace Yılmaz Büyükerşen, who has run the city since 1999. Büyükerşen, whose name is synonymous with Eskişehir, was not re-nominated due to his "advanced age," sources said.
Additionally, the CHP named mayor candidates for 242 cities and districts, including former lawmaker Candan Yüceer for northwestern Tekirdağ province and Burcu Köksal, the CHP's deputy chair in the western Afyonkarahisar province, for the said city.
In Antalya, the re-nomination of incumbent Muhittin Böcek has been one of the top mysteries the CHP has been sitting on. Still, the party will reveal the city's candidate next week, Yücel said Wednesday, despite claims the day before he would be recommended at the CHP assembly.
The CHP also nominated some mayor candidates in Istanbul for districts currently governed by other parties, including high-profile European side neighborhoods like Başakşehir, Beyoğlu and Usküdar.
In a metropolitan district of the capital Ankara, Etimesgut, the CHP has opted to nominate a surprise figure, actor Erdal Beşikçioğlu, largely known for his role as the titular character in the popular detective drama "Behzat Ç."
However, Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavaş is allegedly opposing Beşikçioğlu on account of his wish to nominate Mesut Özarslan, a former member of the Good Party (IP), with which the CHP is now on bad blood. After Beşikçioğlu was announced, Yavaş threatened to withdraw his own candidacy, an opposition newspaper wrote this week.
CHP head Özgür Özel denied the incident on Wednesday, saying: "Mr. Yavaş liked the idea when I first brought it up. Hopefully, he still does. Nothing about it is objectionable. It could be something different about Etimesgut."
As for the CHP stronghold of Izmir, the party is still faltering with settling on a name. Imamoğlu is reportedly pushing for Buğra Gökçe, a close friend of his at the Istanbul municipality, and incumbent mayor Tunç Soyer is lobbying for support for his rerun campaign despite not having been formally announced.
The CHP's mayoral selection process has been turbulent as Imamoğlu's pressure to nominate his favored candidates looms over Özel's administration choices.
The Istanbul mayor, who emerged as an opposition darling in the 2019 elections only to lose his luster during his tenure, regularly squabbles with Özel on the issue as he is keen to see the said cities "under his own control," Turkish newspaper Sabah said earlier this week, citing sources close to the party.
His insistence on nominating his favored names despite Özel's "increasing ire" is brewing a crisis that could last until the end of January, when all eligible political parties must submit their candidacy lists to the relevant authorities.
When the CHP held intraparty elections late last year to determine whether it would stick to the existing order or heed calls for change following two decades of election losses, Imamoğlu's push for a fresh start helped put Özel in charge.
Özel, a 49-year-old former pharmacist, immediately promised a brighter political future for the fractured CHP, as well as victory in the upcoming local elections. Still, he has since failed to persuade former allies into teaming up again, who have been announcing plans to compete with their own candidates in key cities. The CHP desperately needs a win.
In the aftermath of last May's general elections, the March 31 vote is a test of popular support for the CHP and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party). It will show whether the opposition can recoup in time and if the AK Party is still popular despite challenges.
The party, eager to recapture Istanbul from Imamoğlu and Ankara from Yavaş, has named former Environment and Urban Planning Minister Murat Kurum in Istanbul.
The AK Party will also be joining forces with its People's Alliance partner, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), to endorse each other's candidates in 30 metropolitan municipalities and 29 provincial municipalities for the upcoming mayoral vote.
On Wednesday, the MHP, too, announced 55 mayoral candidates, including for two metropolitan cities, 12 provinces and districts in 41 cities.
Cengiz Ergün will compete for Manisa, while Serdar Soydan will run in Mersin, the MHP said.
