New Welfare Party doubles its votes in local elections

ANKARA

New Welfare Party (YRP) leader Fatih Erbakan has claimed that his party is the real winner of the local polls as it came in third with more than 6 percent of votes that brought two municipalities to the conservative party.

“This is the resurrection of the National View [movement]. It is without dispute that we are the real winner of the polls,” Erbakan said in a statement early on April 1, according to initial results.

The YRP supported President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in May 2023 presidential polls but chose to run individually in the parliamentary elections as well as in local polls.

“Our party has reached 6 percent of votes nationwide and became the third party by increasing its votes almost more than 100 percent compared to the May 14 parliamentary polls,” Erbakan said.

With these results, the YRP’s candidates Mehmet Kasım Gülpınar won Şanlıurfa and Kazım Arslan won Yozgat municipalities, the chairman stated. Both cities were run by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) since 2019.

“Our people have clearly demonstrated that it demands justice, fairness in governance and sharing [the revenues] and consistency between rhetoric and policies in the field of justice and foreign policy. Our wish is that the government will take necessary lessons,” he suggested.

Faith Erbakan is the son of late Necmettin Erbakan, deemed to be the founder of conservative politics in Türkiye and had served as the prime minister between 1996 and 1997.