Local elections in Turkey took place throughout the country's 81 provinces on 31 March 2024. A total of 30 metropolitan and 1,363 district municipal mayors, alongside 1,282 provincial and 21,001 municipal councilors were elected, in addition to numerous local non-partisan positions such as neighborhood representatives (muhtars) and elderly people's councils.
The elections took place ten months after the 2023 parliamentary and presidential elections, where the Nation Alliance opposition coalition suffered an unexpected defeat to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's governing People's Alliance. This was despite an ongoing economic crisis and rapidly rising inflation. Following the defeat, the opposition six-party coalition dissolved, with the main opposition parties Republican People's Party (CHP) and Good Party (İYİ) fielding separate candidates for effectively all mayoral positions. This was the first nationwide election to be contested by the CHP's new leader Özgür Özel, who had successfully challenged his predecessor Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu for the position in November 2023.
The Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM), which succeeded the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) as Turkey's principal Kurdish minority rights party, fielded its own candidates in many western metropoles, despite having previously withdrawn candidates in favor of the Nation Alliance.
The results were described as a "spectacular upset" victory for the opposition CHP, which despite the lack of any electoral pacts managed to retain all but one of its metropolitan mayoralties, while winning four more. In particular, the party's candidates in Turkey's largest city Istanbul and capital Ankara, Ekrem İmamoğlu and Mansur Yavaş, were re-elected by 51% and 60%, respectively. Both mayors also won majorities in their respective metropolitan councils, giving them significantly more powers than their previous terms, and are now seen as potential presidential contenders for the next Turkish presidential election. The CHP also won many unexpected victories in areas that had been under government control for the previous two decades, including Bursa, Balıkesir, Manisa, Kütahya, Adıyaman, Amasya, Kırıkkale, Kilis and Denizli. The party also managed to win swathes of districts within many provinces, many of which delivered vote swings of over 30% in the CHP's favor. Overall, the CHP won 35 of Turkey's 81 provincial capitals, with the People's Alliance winning 32.
This was the first nationwide election since 1977 where the CHP came first in the popular vote, and the first election where the AK Party did not come first since its foundation in 2001. Nevertheless, the AK Party retained a narrow plurality in the number of district mayoralties won, and the People's Alliance scored small but notable victories against the CHP in Hatay and Kırklareli. The leader of the opposition Good Party (İYİ), Meral Akşener, announced her pending resignation after her party almost halved its share of the popular vote.
Background 2019 elections During the local elections of 2019, the opposition parties had formed alliances in key races, and had narrowly defeated the government in two of the biggest cities in Turkey, namely Istanbul and Ankara. The election in Istanbul was won by a margin smaller than 0.2%, which the government successfully petitioned for a re-run. Τhis culminated in the mayοral electiοn οf June 2019, which the οppοsitiοn wοn in a landslide.
2023 elections The elections took place nine months after the 2023 parliamentary and presidential elections, where most parties opposed to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan rallied behind the leader of the Republican People's Party, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, including the center-right Good Party (İYİ) and the pro-Kurdish Green Left Party (YSP) (now renamed to Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM)). Erdoğan, despite the predictions of most surveys, was narrowly reelected. This was despite an ongoing economic crisis and rapidly rising inflation. Following the defeat, the opposition six-party coalition was dissolved by İYİ Party.
Election of Özgür Özel as the leader of CHP Following the 2023 elections, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu remained as the leader of CHP despite calls for him to resign. This culminated in the contested 2023 party congress, where the deputy leader of the parliamentary group of the CHP, Özgür Özel, was elected as the new leader of the CHP. The call for change was led by the mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem İmamoğlu, who heavily criticized the way in which the CHP's election campaign was run.
Candidates and alliances
People's Alliance The governing AKP and their main partner MHP entered the election in a partnership, where they endorsed each others' candidates in key districts.
AKP nominated Murat Kurum, Member of Parliament for Istanbul (I) electoral district and former Minister of Environment, Urbanisation and Climate Change, for the mayoral election in Istanbul, which was endorsed by MHP. In Ankara, the alliance nominated the mayor of the district of Keçiören, Turgut Altınok.
CHP
The main opposition CHP, which had won Ankara and Istanbul in 2019 nominated the same mayors for a second term. Thus, Ekrem İmamoğlu was nominated for the municipality of Istanbul, and Mansur Yavaş was nominated in Ankara.
İYİ Party After the 2023 elections, İYİ leader Meral Akşener, along with the party's executive committee, refused to cooperate with CHP like they did in 2019. This was despite the CHP repeatedly offering an alliance with them.
Political parties participating in the election
General information about the parties that meet the conditions to participate in the election as of 2 January 2024 is listed here. The Innovation Party announced that it would not participate in the election. The places of 35 political parties on the ballot paper were announced by the YSK on 27 January 2024.
Because of long-running court cases the Green Party and the Humanity and Freedom Party were not included in the ballot.
Positions of parties on the ballot papers PositionPartyFounded LeaderAlliance1 AK Party Justice and Development Party2001 Recep Tayyip ErdoğanPeople's Alliance2 İYİ Parti Good Party2017 Meral Akşener—3 SOL Left Party2019 Önder İşleyen—4 BBP Great Unity Party1993 Mustafa DesticiPeople's Alliance5 Memleket Homeland Party2021 Muharrem İnce—6 ANAP Motherland Party2011 İbrahim Çelebi—7 DSP Democratic Left Party1985 Önder Aksakal—8 Yeniden Refah New Welfare Party2018 Fatih Erbakan—9 DEM Party People's Equality and Democracy Party2012 Tülay Hatimoğulları OruçTuncer Bakırhan—10 TKP Communist Party of Turkey2001 Kemal Okuyan—11 ABP Anatolia Union Party2020Bedri Yalçın—12 ZPVictory Party2021 Ümit Özdağ—13 HKP People's Liberation Party2005 Nurullah Ankut—14 TKH Communist Movement of Turkey2015 Aysel Tekerek—15 BTP Independent Turkey Party2001 Hüseyin Baş—16 Gelecek Partisi Future Party2019 Ahmet DavutoğluFelicity and Future Alliance17 YTP New Turkey Party2013 Engin Yılmaz—18 CHP Republican People's Party1923 Özgür Özel—19 EMEP Labour Party1996 Selma Gürkan20 HÜDA PAR Free Cause Party2012 Zekeriya Yapıcıoğlu—21 HAK-PAR Rights and Freedoms Party2002 Düzgün Kaplan—22 Ocak Hearth Party2023 Kadir Canpolat—23 AB PARTİ Justice Union Party2018 İrfan Uzun—24 DP Democrat Party2007 Gültekin Uysal—25 GBP Power Union Party2020 Ali Karnap—26 MİLLET Nation Party1992 Cuma Nacar—27 Milli Yol National Path Party2021 Remzi Çayır—28 AP Justice Party2015 Vecdet Öz—29 GP Young Party2002 Hakan Uzan—30 ADP Enlightened Democracy Party2021Zeynep Yıkarbaba—31 MHP Nationalist Movement Party1969 Devlet BahçeliPeople's Alliance32 TİP Workers' Party of Turkey2017 Erkan Baş—33 DEVA Democracy and Progress Party2020 Ali Babacan—34 SAADET Felicity Party2001 Temel KaramollaoğluFelicity and Future Alliance35 VP Patriotic Party2015 Doğu Perinçek—
Security concerns and incidents Around 594,000 security personnel were deployed nationwide to ensure the regular conduct of the election.
On 10 February, gunmen opened fire at a campaign event in the Küçükçekmece district municipality of Istanbul for AKP mayoral candidate Aziz Yeniay, critically injuring one person. Seventeen people were arrested in connection with the attack.
On 10 March, 33 people suspected of involvement with Islamic State were arrested in police raids in Sakarya Province on suspicion of plotting attacks ahead of the election. Authorities also recovered weapons, cash and "organizational documents".
On election day, one person was killed and 11 others were injured following a dispute over the election of a neighborhood administrator in Diyarbakır, while six people were injured in clashes in Şanlıurfa Province.
Results
Map
Changes in control The list below shows the parties governing the capitals of the 81 provinces before and after the local elections. Provinces in bold denote metropolitan municipalities. SummaryParty:Before:Elected:Change: Party totalsOthers
Key races
Full list Note: AK Party is abbreviated "AKP" and Yeniden Refah is abbreviated "YRP" here for visualisation purposes. Metropolitan municipalities are in bold. ProvinceBeforeElectedAdanaAdıyamanAfyonAğrıAmasyaAnkaraAntalyaArtvinAydınBalıkesirBilecikBingölBitlisBoluBurdurBursaÇanakkale ProvinceBeforeElectedÇankırıÇorumDenizliDiyarbakırEdirneElazığErzincanErzurumEskişehirGaziantepGiresunGümüşhaneHakkâriHatayIspartaMersinIstanbul ProvinceBeforeElectedİzmirKarsKastamonuKayseriKırklareliKırşehirKocaeliKonyaKütahyaMalatyaManisaK. MaraşMardinMuğlaMuşNevşehirNiğde ProvinceBeforeElectedOrduRizeSakaryaSamsunSiirtSinopSivasTekirdağTokatTrabzonTunceliŞanlıurfaUşakVanYozgatZonguldakAksaray ProvinceBeforeElectedBayburtKaramanKırıkkaleBatmanŞırnakBartınArdahanIğdırYalovaKarabükKilisOsmaniyeDüzce
Reactions President Erdoğan acknowledged the AKP's electoral losses but said that it would mark "not an end for us but rather a turning point", adding that he would respect the result, "correct our mistakes and redress our shortcomings". The CHP’s Özgür Özel praised voters, saying that they had established a "new political order" in Turkey leading to "a new political climate". İYİ leader Meral Akşener called for an extraordinary party congress amid demands for her resignation.
Analysis This was the first election since the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP)'s establishment in 2001 that it did not come first in a national election, with the CHP winning 37.8% of the vote compared to the AKP's 35.5%. It was the first nationwide election since 1977 in which the CHP came first. CHP affiliated mayors now govern cities which make up 64% of Turkey's population and 80% of its economy. Commentators compared the vote to the 1989 local election, where the centre-left opposition at the time had scored significant victories against long-standing right-wing governments and came first in the popular vote. Nevertheless, the People's Alliance did score some victories against the opposition, taking the traditionally opposition-leaning mayoralties of Hatay and Kırklareli, and narrowly won a plurality of district municipalities.