TÜM-BEL-SEN report reveals that since the 2024 local elections, the administration of 85 municipalities has been changed through trustee appointments, dismissals, and political interventions.
The Union of Municipal and Local Government Workers in Turkey (TÜM-BEL SEN) released a report on the second anniversary of the March 31, 2024 local elections. The report focuses on political pressure against municipalities run by opposition parties.
According to the report, since the 2024 elections, government interventions in local administrations have become against labor and democracy. It states that local democracy in Turkey has effectively been suspended due to practices; such as appointing government trustees, removing elected officials, judicial actions and financial restrictions.
“Public will has been ignored”
The report highlights that a large portion of votes for opposition parties has been ignored. It tells that 44.4% of the votes for the CHP (Republican People’s Party, main opposition party in Turkey) and 27.7% for the DEM Party (Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party) were effectively taken away.
Report also argues that these practices violate the constitution, especially the basic democratic right to vote and be elected of people. After Hakkari, similar interventions continued in many (most of them are Kurdish-majority) municipalities, including Esenyurt, Batman, Mardin, Halfeti, Dersim, Ovacık, Siirt, Van, Kağızman, and Şişli.
The report states that these trustee appointments have damaged local politics, which is a key space for a peaceful and democratic solution to the Kurdish issue. Since the 2024 elections, public will has been ignored not only through trustee appointments but also through suspensions, political pressure to switch parties, and changes in municipal councils.
85 administration has been changed
According to the report, the administration of 85 municipalities has been changed since the elections, making millions of votes ineffective. It says that about 8.8 million votes (20.55% of all votes) have been disregarded.
The report also recalls that the election certificate of Van Metropolitan Municipality’s elected mayor, Abdullah Zeydan, was first mayor to be unlawfully attempted to be taken away. In total, elected mayors or co-mayors in 30 municipalities -including major cities like Istanbul, Van, Mardin, Adana, and Antalya- were removed from office. In 55 municipalities, political control changed through different methods, such as altering municipal council arithmetics.
The report notes that municipalities in Turkey depend heavily on the central government for funding. Due to limited resources, cities -where 94% of the population lives- receive only 12% of total public spending.
Finally, it states that since the elections, 1,342 public workers have been dismissed due to canceled contracts and around 3,200 workers have directly lost income.
