The AKP takes over Menderes district after an opposition split

The municipal council in Menderes, in İzmir province, elected the AKP's Asuman Şen acting mayor with 15 votes in the fourth round, against 12 for the New Party's Barış Gürsoy, after the elected CHP mayor İlkay Çiçek was detained and removed from office in a corruption investigation. The CHP won 18 of 31 council seats in 2024, but nine members have crossed to the newly formed New Party, founded by former CHP leader Özgür Özel, and three have been arrested in the investigation. The outcome shows how the opposition split hands the governing party local footholds even where it lacks a majority of its own.

← See the full edition