Protesters hurl eggs, spray graffiti on campaign office in Istanbul.
Demonstrators from Abbasağa Platform, a small anti-government organization, gathered on Monday around the mobile office of the AK Party's mayoral candidate for Istanbul's Beşiktaş district, Zeynel Abidin Okul and demanded it be removed from the area. Some protesters threw eggs on the vehicle while others painted anti-government graffiti on its exterior. Riot police deployed to the scene and dispersed the crow and four demonstrators were arrested for resisting police.
Ahead of municipal elections across the country on March 30 tensions are on the rise between rival political parties. An adviser to a candidate for the opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) was killed when a group of people raided a campaign office in Istanbul's Esenyurt district last month. The office of Mustafa Sarıgül, the mayoral candidate for Istanbul for the Republican People's Party (CHP), was also attacked twice in the past few months. In January, unknown assailants set the car of a local director of AK Party on fire in the southeastern Turkish province of Hakkari.
The elections for five-year municipal seats are regarded as a test for the ruling AK Party but despite a corruption probe which has sought to discredit the government the party is aiming to boost its share in upcoming polls.
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