Turkey: Erdogan names 14 more mayoral candidates

By Aynur Ekiz

ANKARA

Turkey’s president and ruling party leader on Thursday named 14 more mayoral candidates for local elections next March, but kept the candidate for Istanbul -- which holds nearly one-fifth of Turkey's population -- under wraps.

Candidates for one large metropolitan municipality and 13 provincial municipalities were announced by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, head of the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party, at party headquarters in the capital Ankara.

Erdogan nominated Necdet Takva, head of the chamber of industry and commerce for the eastern province of Van, for the mayor of metropolitan Van, the province’s capital.

Other candidates are as follows: for the city of Agri - Savci Sayan; Aksaray - Enver Dincer; Bilecik - Nihat Can; Erzincan - Cemalettin Bassoy; Edirne - Koray Uymaz; Igdir - Adil Asirim; Isparta - Sukru Basdegirmen; Kars - Ensar Erdogdu; Kırşehir - Yasar Bahceci; Kütahya - Ahmet Sami Kutlu; Siirt - Ali Ilbas; Tunceli - Gokhan Arslan; and Zonguldak - Omer Selim Alan.

With the 60 mayoral candidates Erdogan announced previously -- including candidates for Ankara and Izmir and 12 more metropolitan municipalities -- to date the ruling AK Party has announced 74 provincial mayoral candidates.

Turkey’s local elections are scheduled for March 31, 2019.