Pro-Kurdish Politician Becomes Mayor After Successful Protest

In the Turkish local elections, a pro-Kurdish mayoral candidate received the most votes. However, the election in the province of Van was annulled. The subsequent protests have now succeeded.

Election Decision Reversed: Pro-Kurdish Politician Regains Mayorship

After protests against the exclusion of a pro-Kurdish politician from his mayoral office, Turkey’s Supreme Election Board reversed the decision. The board granted the mandate for the mayoral office in eastern Turkey’s Van to the politician from the pro-Kurdish party Dem, Abdullah Zeydan, and thereby upheld his party’s appeal, as reported by the state news agency Anadolu.

Disputed Election Results: Pro-Kurdish Candidate Claims Victory

Zeydan was elected mayor of Van with 55 percent of the votes in the Turkish local elections on Sunday. However, according to his party, he was denied the appointment certificate. The local election board justified its decision by stating that Zeydan had a criminal record and therefore should not have been allowed to run for office, Anadolu reported.

AKP Candidate Supposed to be Mayor

Despite the election board having approved Zeydan as a candidate weeks prior to the Sunday election, the AKP, the party of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was set to appoint the second-place candidate as mayor. This candidate, representing AKP, received approximately 27 percent of the votes in Van, according to preliminary results.

Repeat of 2019 Incident: Protests Over Dismissal of Pro-Kurdish Politicians

The Dem party, for which Zeydan ran, filed an objection against the decision. Protests erupted in many Turkish cities against the ruling, reminiscent of previous incidents where pro-Kurdish local politicians had been removed from office.

Similar Incident in 2019

During the 2019 local elections, the pro-Kurdish HDP party won 65 mayoral seats. However, the government in Ankara removed a large number of these politicians from office on terrorism charges and replaced them with appointed trustees.