AKP candidate picked as Üsküdar's new acting mayor

ISTANBUL

The Üsküdar Municipality in Istanbul convened on Oct. 20 to elect a new acting mayor, with ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) candidate Muhammed Emin Sarıoğlu elected to the post following the death of his predecessor, Dündar Ziya Gültekin, in a traffic accident last week.

Sarıoğlu, the candidate of the People’s Alliance, won the election with 24 votes in the third round of voting held at the municipal council on Oct. 20.

Ahead of the vote, Yaşar Tüzün, deputy chair of the main opposition New Party responsible for local governments, announced that his party would not participate in the election.

Tüzün said consultations with municipal council members had led the party to conclude that the election was illegitimate.

Expressing his condolences over Gültekin’s death, Tüzün said the election could legally be held within 10 days, but argued that announcing the date of the vote just one day after Gültekin’s death was inappropriate.

Only the 20 AKP and four Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) members of the municipal council took part in the election.

Republican People’s Party (CHP) and New Party council members boycotted the vote, describing it as illegitimate.

Gültekin had been elected deputy mayor as the AKP’s candidate on Sept. 3, following the arrest of Üsküdar Mayor Sinem Dedetaş.

Gültekin was involved in a traffic accident in Düzce on Oct. 15 and died in hospital despite medical
intervention.

The first election to fill the post following Dedetaş’s arrest had been held on Aug. 5, when CHP candidate Sibel Tan Çetinkaya won.

However, following Gültekin’s application to an administrative court seeking to overturn the result, the initial election was suspended on the grounds that it had not been conducted in accordance with the law.