Ruling AKP to announce names of 20 mayoral candidates

ANKARA

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is set to unveil the names of 20 more mayoral candidates on Nov. 27, two days after Presidend and AKP leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced 41 names to run in the upcoming March 2019 local elections.

Erdoğan will announce the candidates for provinces including the capital Ankara and the western province of İzmir, but his nominee for Istanbul province will not be announced until a meeting to be held after he returns from a G-20 meeting in Argentina.

Erdoğan will reveal the names of the candidates for the provinces of Balıkesir, Sakarya, Konya, Muğla, Trabzon, Eskişehir, Hatay, Mardin, Uşak, Çanakkale, Çorum, Sivas, Yozgat, Karaman, Muş, Bingöl, Çankırı and Afyonkarahisar during a parliament meeting.

AKP deputy chair Mehmet Özhaseki is expected to be nominated for the capital Ankara and Nihat Zeybekci, the deputy chair of the economy policies council of the Presidency, is expected to run for İzmir.

Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli has endorsed the AKP’s candidates to run for mayor of the three largest provinces of Turkey, Istanbul, Ankara, and İzmir.

In this regard, the MHP will not nominate any candidate in these provinces. In return, the AKP will support MHP candidates where the nationalist party is popular, such as Adana, Mersin, Osmaniye, Manisa and Isparta provinces along with the Etimesgut and Alanya districts.