2014 Turkish local elections

2014 Turkish local elections

← 2009 30 March 2014 1 June (re-runs) 2019 →
All 81 Provinces of Turkey 30 metropolitan and 1,351 district municipal mayors 1,251 provincial and 20,500 municipal councillors
Turnout	89.15%
Majority party Minority party   Leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu Party AK Party CHP Last election 45 provinces, 38.39% 13 provinces, 23.08% Provinces[a] 48 14 Change 3 1 Popular vote[b] 17,802,976 10,938,262 Percentage[b] 42.87% 26.34% Swing 4.48 pp 3.26 pp   Third party Fourth party   Leader Devlet Bahçeli Selahattin Demirtaş* Party MHP BDP / HDP Last election 10 provinces, 15.97% 8 provinces, 5.70%[c] Provinces[a] 8 10 Change 2 2 Popular vote[b] 7,399,119 2,611,127 Percentage[b] 17.82% 6.29% Swing 1.85 pp 1.03 pp
Results map showing the winning party by provincial capitals (top) and by the districts of Turkey (bottom) ^ Four different elections in order to elect both types of councillor and mayor were held on the same day. The results shown here are the municipal councillor election results, which best reflect the overall voting intentions of the electorate. See the results section for the full results. * The Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) ran alongside the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP). The combined results of both are shown.

Local elections (formal: local authority general elections, Turkish: Mahalli İdareler Genel Seçimi or simply Yerel Seçimleri) were held in Turkey on 30 March 2014, with some repeated on 1 June 2014. Metropolitan and district mayors as well as their municipal council members in cities, and muhtars and "elderly councils" in rural areas (and also in mahalles within urban areas) were elected. In light of the controversy around the elections, it was viewed as a referendum on the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.^[1] About 50 million people were eligible to vote.

A local government re-organisation took place before the election, lowering the total number of elected officials from 38,592 to 23,132. Almost 1,500 beldes (small municipal towns) had their municipalities abolished, meaning that a significantly fewer number of mayors were elected compared to the 2009 local elections. Most provinces no longer elect any provincial councillors. The number of metropolitan municipalities, however, rose from 16 to 30.

The elections were marred by allegations of electoral fraud^[2][3][4] and violence, with both opposition and ruling party candidates alike refusing to recognise a wide variety of results. Significant cases of fraud in Ankara^[5] and Yalova^[6] were referred to the Supreme Electoral Council of Turkey for reviewal. Allegations of misconduct included the untimely power cuts in several areas while the votes were being counted (claimed to be caused by cats entering transformers), intimidation by government forces such as the European Union Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and the Anatolian Agency in electorally strategic districts, the theft and burning of votes cast for opposition candidates and the recording of opposition votes as invalid or blank.^{[7][8][9][10][11][12]} The elections had been controversial due to allegations of government corruption, voter bribery and the lack of up-to-date voter records beforehand.^[13][14]

Regardless, the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) declared victory in the early hours of 31 March,^[15] gaining 42.89% of the vote, 818 municipalities and 11,309 councillors. The opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) came second with 26.34%, 232 municipalities and 4,320 councillors, announcing that it would be filing complaints against alleged electoral manipulation.^[16][17][18] By 4 April 2014, numerous municipalities changed mayors following recounts.^[19] Gradual post-election revelations of alleged widespread irregularities in several cities sparked pro-democracy protests after provisional results were announced, while the Electoral Council declared results in some areas null and void.^[20][21] A repeat of the elections in these areas took place on 1 June. These most notably occurred in Yalova and Ağrı, in which the ruling AKP had lost by a small margin to the CHP and BDP respectively on March 30. In a first of a series of trials relating to electoral fraud claims, a returning officer was sentenced to five years in prison in June 2015 after being found guilty of transferring CHP votes to the AKP.^[22] It was the first time that women were elected as mayors to metropolitan areas in Turkey, namely Gültan Kışanak to Diyarbakir, Fatma Sahin to Gaziantep and Özlem Çerçioğlu to Aydın.^[23]

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