Mayor-makers: Turkey’s pro-Kurdish party weighs options for upcoming elections

CHP head Özgür Özel (left) met with DEM Party co-chairs Tülay Hatimoğulları (center) and Tuncer Bakırhan (right) on Dec. 13. © DEM

ANKARA – With less than four months to go till March 2024 local elections in Turkey, the country’s pro-Kurdish party is once again expected to play a key role in tilting the balance at the ballot box. 

While not yet labeled ‘kingmakers’ as in past elections, the newly-branded Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM) drew nearly 9 percent of votes in the May 2023 parliamentary elections and its leadership has a history of effectively directing the party’s predominantly Kurdish voters to sway major political races.

DEM Party support will be essential in high-stakes contests this spring between the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).

This is especially true in Ankara and İstanbul, where the AKP will concentrate campaigning efforts in an attempt to reclaim Turkey’s two largest metropolitan mayorships.

In 2019 local elections, the AKP lost control of both cities to the CHP, which benefited from open-but-implicit support from DEM Party’s predecessor, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).

This fall, the DEM Party announced it would field its own candidates for local elections, though without closing the door on potential electoral cooperation in Ankara and İstanbul. 

The stance has once more positioned the pro-Kurdish party to sway voting outcomes in key races, and its leaders are currently assessing the prospects and benefits of collaborating with both political blocs.

In this context, CHP leader Özgür Özel met with DEM Party co-chairs Tuncer Bakırhan and Tülay Hatimoğulları in DEM headquarters today (Dec. 13).