CHP nominates socialist ÖDP chair to run for Beyoğlu district mayor

ANKARA

The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has nominated a member of the socialist Freedom and Solidarity Party’s (ÖDP) board of chairs, Alper Taş, to run for mayor of Istanbul’s central Beyoğlu district on its ticket.

The candidates presented for Istanbul’s Kadıköy, Şişli, Beyoğlu and Küçükçekmece districts were accepted unanimously at a party assembly meeting on Feb. 3.

The Supreme Election Council (YSK) had not included the ÖDP, a left-libertarian and internationalist socialist party, among parties to race in the March 31 local elections.

In his latest remarks, CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said Taş is a “respected” and “well-suited” name for Beyoğlu.

Taş, in an interview last week, said they have been forging alliances with the CHP not across Turkey but only for Beyoğlu district and Çamaş district of the northern Ordu province in the local elections. 

The CHP’s party assembly nominated Muammer Keskin for Şişli, Kemal Çebi for Küçükçekmeçe, and Şerdil Odabaşı for Kadıköy. Keskin will compete with rivals including Mustafa Sarıgül, a former CHP mayor of Şişli.

The CHP is holding partial cooperation with different political parties for the upcoming local elections on March 31, including mostly İYİ (Good) Party and Felicity (Saadet) Party.

The Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and the CHP have not officially declared an alliance, but the former has not presented candidates for Istanbul, Adana and İzmir provinces and is yet to announce names for Ankara, Antalya and Mersin provinces, a move that has seen by many as an indirect support to the CHP’s candidates.