Erdoğan says AKP will run eco-friendly election campaign

ANKARA

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) will run an eco-friendly election campaign, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Dec. 6, as he revealed mayor candidates for 14 more cities across Turkey.

“Starting from the 2019 election campaign period, we are abandoning all methods that cause visual and audio pollution,” the president and party leader said during an Ankara meeting with provincial AKP officials, referring to the March 31, 2019 local elections.

“We can hang posters and flags only to the locations of our party offices and election coordination centers. Other than that, we will not allow any visual pollution,” he said, calling on rivals to act similarly.

The president also said party buses, which normally tour cities and towns during election campaigning periods playing loud propaganda music, will be out on the streets on prescheduled and limited hours.

14 more candidates

As the AKP’s pick for Turkey’s largest city Istanbul is awaited, Erdoğan named 14 more candidates in addition to previously declared 60 runners.

The new names include one metropolitan municipality candidate, Necdet Takva, who is the head of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce for the eastern province of Van, in addition to 13 candidates for provincial municipalities.

The party previously declared two strong names for the capital Ankara and Turkey’s third largest province İzmir, former ministers Mehmet Özhaseki and Nihat Zeybekci respectively.

No other party has declared candidates for the three largest cities of the country yet.

The president did not miss a chance to criticize the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) over its leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu’s recent visit to Germany.

”This person visited Germany and a few European countries. This person who ends up in Germany before every election in Turkey met with some people. Looking at the persons he met with, we see a different picture. He met with people who have dedicated their political lives to enmity toward Turkey, with close links to the terrorist organizations,” Erdoğan said, referring to the illegal PKK.

“We can see him in the same photo with those who appeared at the German federal parliament with the rags of the terrorist organizations,” he said.

The president also questioned why the CHP leader’s meetings were closed to the press.

“We can roughly guess what Kılıçdaroğlu said against our country behind closed doors,” he said.

The CHP leader paid a visit to Germany by the end of last month, meeting with German politicians before he moved to Austria on Nov. 30.