The Supreme Election Council (YSK) on Monday announced the formal results of the March 31 municipal elections. Board chair Ahmet Yener also declared the date for constituencies where elections were annulled and would be held again.
The elections were the first time in years where the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) took the lead in constituencies it consecutively failed to win in over two decades.
Yener said that the council approved complaints over election results in several districts and decided that re-election will be held on June 2 in the towns and districts of Aksaray, Kayseri, Şanlıurfa, Sivas, Tunceli and Kırklareli.
He stressed that elections were conducted in a peaceful environment except for a few isolated incidents.
According to the official results, voter turnout was 80.09% for votes for municipal assembly members. For mayoral elections, turnout was slightly above 78%. Out of 30 metropolitan municipalities, the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) won 12 municipalities, while CHP won 14 seats. New Welfare Party (YRP) won one metropolitan municipality seat while the pro-PKK Green Left Party (YSP), informally known as the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), a successor of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), won three metropolitan municipality seats. Out of 51 mayoral seats, AK Party won 12 seats, while CHP won 21 seats.
Apart from losses for the AK Party, the highlight of this election is lower voter turnout compared to the 2019 municipal election. As some political pundits claimed, it is uncertain whether voter apathy linked to the same parties winning always played a role in low turnout. It might be associated with the election being held during Ramadan, Islam's month of fasting, in which the faithful abstain from eating and drinking from dawn until more than one hour after the polls close.
