AKP Produces Mayors from 56 Cities
Besides getting the mayoral posts of 57 provinces, AKP got 42.8 % of the votes in the Province General Assemblies (Which is an indicator that is comparable with the general elections results).
AKP was followed by CHP with 17.8 % of votes, Nationalist Action Party MHP with 10.8 %, True Path Party (DYP) with 10.2 %, Social Democrat Populist Party (Democratic Union of Powers) (SHP) with 4.3 % Young Party with 2.8 %, Motherland Party With 2.5 %, Democratic Left Party DSP with 2.1 % and Great Unity Party BBP with 1.2 %.
Returns so far received, showed that, if this were general elections, besides AKP and CHP which got 34.43 % and 19.41 %of the votes respectively in the November 2003 elections, this time True Path Party (Which had 9.54 % of votes in Nov.2003) and Nationalist Action Party MHP (Which got 8.35 % in Nov.2003) would also be able to enter Parliament, passing the 10 % threshold. In that case AKP would produce 342 deputies (365 at present), CHP 100 deputies (177 at present), DYP 52 deputies and MHP 56 deputies.
Of 43,1 million voters, 10.215.228 people cast valid votes in Sunday's elections.
Independent candidate Mikail Kayaturk was named the Mayor of Ardahan, North-East Anatolia.
Topbas Istanbul's new mayor
Istanbul's Mayor became AKP's Kadir Topbas, Ankara's Mayor, AKP's Melih Gokcek and Izmir's Mayor, CHP's Ahmet Piristina. In Ankara, Melih Gokcek of AKP was named Mayor for a third time, setting a record.
His vote percentage on Sunday was 57.1 %, with a margin of 39 % over his closest rival Murat Karayalcin of SHP. AKP got all seven townships in Ankara but could not achieve in Cankaya. CHP's Mustafa Sarigul won once more in Sisli.
This was the first local elections which AKP competed, 17 months after coming to power and its votes were again very high over its rivals, with a big margin. (YE)