Yeşiltepe is one of the smallest towns in Türkiye but this nondescript constituency in the Anatolian heartland garnered the distinction of being the only place in the country with the highest voter turnout in the municipal elections.
A record 98.04% of the electorate cast their vote in the March 31 vote as certified by the Supreme Election Council (YSK) that confirmed the official election results on Monday.
Locals tie the high turnout to their loyalty to democracy and respect for diverse political views. “Our people prize the election,” as local business owner Adil Düzgün puts it. “We respect the political views of each other,” he told Anadolu Agency (AA) on Wednesday.
The overall turnout in mayoral elections was 78.12%, relatively lower compared to past elections.
Ismail Demircan, elected as a member of Yeşiltepe’s municipal assembly, said they are more politically conscious. He added that candidates’ dialogue with the voters in the town of roughly 2,270 people also boosted the turnout. “It was like a festival for us rather than a race. Nobody lost, everybody won,” he said. But the winner, according to YSK, was Ismail Akpınar, who ran as a candidate for the opposition Good Party (IP). Akpınar secured 812 of the 1,636 valid votes. A total of 1,698 voters cast their ballots in the town. Anyway, the town celebrated the election in general with a traditional banquet where everyone was invited. “We had celebrations for three days,” Demircan noted.
Düzgün said there weren’t any quarrels common in some constituencies during election day and it was a genuine “festival of democracy” for the town’s residents.
Mehmet Ali Gündüz, who was elected mukhtar of the Çalışkan neighborhood of Yeşiltepe, said nobody supporting one political party offended others supporting another party. “It was lovely. We are happy with the election process,” he said.
On the other hand, Aksaray is also home to the highest number of constituencies (actually two in total) where elections will be renewed in June due to objections to election results by some political parties. As for the lowest voter turnout, Belekçehan, a “belde” (small town) like Yeşiltepe had the unenviable spot. The town in central Türkiye’s Yozgat province had only 36.18% voter turnout on March 31.
