“Now DEM has arrived in Istanbul,” party spokesperson Aysegul Dogan told journalists.
The Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) made the decision in a meeting of its executive committee on Saturday, when they set the party’s strategy for the upcoming elections.
The party is entering the race in the country’s largest city not to draw support to some other candidate and make “someone lose or win,” but rather to take the mayoralty for themselves, Dogan explained.
“As DEM Party, we have decided to enter the Istanbul elections with our own candidates to win,” Dogan said.
In the 2019 local elections, DEM Party’s predecessor the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) decided not to field candidates in the major cities of Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, and Antalya. As a result of this strategy, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lost all four provinces to the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), marking the first time in 15 years that the AKP lost in Ankara and Istanbul.
Who will carry DEM Party’s flag in Istanbul remains to be seen. There are strong indications the party may go with Basak Demirtas, the wife of imprisoned former HDP co-chair Selahattin Demirtas. On Wednesday, Gulistan Kilic Kocyigit, deputy head of DEM’s parliamentary bloc, told journalists that Basak Demirtas is “one of the strongest possible candidates.”
The party plans to announce the name of its Istanbul candidate and other provinces by February 9, according to Dogan.
DEM Party will be competing for Istanbul’s votes on March 31 against the incumbent CHP mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, Ultranationalist IYI Party’s candidate Bugra Kavuncu, and AKP’s candidate Murat Kurum, as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan tries to win back the province he lost five years ago.
