NOS News•today, 8:58 PM
The winner of the local elections in the Turkish city of Van may become mayor after a protest. The provincial electoral council initially canceled Abdullah Zeydan’s victory, but has now reversed that decision, according to Turkish media.
DEM, the party of which Zeydan is a member, welcomes the final decision. The provincial electoral council has changed tack “thanks to resistance from the Kurdish people”, says the pro-Kurdish party on X. A shared video shows supporters celebrating in the street and waving flags.
‘Criminal case’
Zeydan received 55 percent of the votes in the city in southeastern Turkey on Sunday. The DEM candidate received significantly more votes than his counterpart from the ruling party AKP, Abdulahat Avraz, who remained at 27 percent. But the electoral council subsequently ruled that Zeydan should never have participated due to a criminal case from 2016. He was then arrested on suspicion of spreading ‘terror propaganda’.
His party called it a political decision, because Zeydan had been officially approved for participation prior to the elections. When AKP candidate Avraz was put forward by the electoral council as mayor, DEM supporters took to the streets in Van.
Last night there was a confrontation between security forces and demonstrators:
Riots in Turkey after ousting of Kurdish mayor
After an objection was raised, the provincial election board voted on the issue. According to news channel Tele1, seven members voted in favor of Zeydan and four against him. This has removed the obstacles to his mayoralty.
There are concerns that the situation in Van will occur in more places in Turkey. In the aftermath of the previous local elections five years ago, more than a hundred Kurdish mayors were replaced by AKP candidates. Kurdish politicians are regularly accused of involvement in the Kurdish terrorist group PKK.
President Erdogan’s party, the AKP, performed poorly in local elections last weekend. The largest opposition party, CHP, received the most votes nationally. The DEM is a left-wing party that attracts many Kurdish voters.
