Ex-AKP lawmaker and minister says he will vote for main opposition in elections

ANKARA

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Ex-Culture Minister Ertuğrul Günay, who resigned from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the wake of the graft scandal, has announced that he will vote for the main opposition Republican People Party’s (CHP) candidate for the Ankara mayoralty in the upcoming local elections.

“In my opinion, it is time to say ‘stop’ to [Ankara’s current mayor] Melih Gökçek. I will vote with that perspective,” Günay told reporters who questioned him about the elections.

Despite stirring controversy throughout his long tenure, Gökçek has been nominated by the AKP as a candidate for a fifth term at the helm of the Turkish capital. If elected in the March 30 local elections, Gökçek will reach a quarter of a century as the city’s mayor.

The CHP has presented Mansur Yavaş, the former mayor of the historic town of Beypazarı near Ankara.

His nomination had surprised some, as Yavaş is a former member of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). He candidacy has been interpreted as a move to garner votes from the right to defeat Gökçek.

Günay said he would vote for the CHP candidate in the Çankaya district as well. “The CHP’s Çankaya candidate Alper Taşdelen is someone young and successful. I will give my vote to him,” he said.

A former CHP lawmaker, Günay became one of the most dissenting voices within the AKP after he left his ministry portfolio in January 2013 before his resignation in January 2014.