CHP awards successful municipalities

İZMİR

DHA Photo

In a bid to boost the success of local administrations, the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) held a conference and awards ceremony over the weekend in the Aegean province of İzmir.

Organized by the Association of Social Democratic Municipalities (SODEM) in İzmir’s Seferihisar district, the 2016 Local Administrations Awards brought together more than 100 mayors from around the country who were all members of the CHP. Over 500 projects competed for awards in 12 categories, including urban development, environment, employment, agriculture and stray animals.

Founded in 2011, SODEM brings together 122 metropolitan and district municipalities in a bid to share their experiences and resources. Speaking at the conference, Seferihisar Mayor Tunç Soyer, who also chairs SODEM, said municipalities were an important tool to reach out to citizens.

“Success in local administration will bring success to our party in the general elections, while we will all pay the price if we fail to make our citizens happy,” Soyer said.

The mayors of the award-winning municipalities received their awards from CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.

“Our mayors are undertaking very important and successful projects, but we fail in making the public aware of these [projects],” Kılıçdaroğlu said.  “I hope that this awards ceremony, which was organized for the first time, will be a useful tool for this purpose.”