Female Winners of Municipal Elections

According to the unconfirmed results of the local elections, 4 provinces- 3 metropoles- have woman mayors from 81 provinces.

Februniye Akyol, a young woman, will hold the co-chairman position along with Ahmet Türk in Mardin Metropolitan Municipality.

Diyarbakır province elected the candidate from Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) while Aydın province elected its candidate from Republican Peoples’ Party (CHP) and Antep province elected from Justice and Development party (AKP). Hakkari province chose its candidate from BDP. The candidates were all women.

According to the unconfirmed results BDP has 22, AKP and CHP have 5 and MHP has one female mayors in the districts of Turkey.

Female mayors in the municipalities were only two in 2009. Özlem Çerçioğlu from CHP in Aydın province and Edibe Şahin from Democratic Society Party in Dersim province. 15 female mayors were in the districts.

Provinces

4 of 81 municipalities have female mayors

For the first time, metropoles have female mayors in Turkey. The mayors of Diyarbakır, Aydın and Antep provinces are women: Gültan Kışanak from BDP in Diyarbakır, Özlem Çerçioğlu from CHP in Aydın and Fatma Şahin from AKP in Antep province.

Apart from the metropoles, the only woman co-mayor is from Hakkari province.

Dilek Hatipoğlu from BDP has been elected as Hakkari Mayor.

9 women as co-chair

In 9 provinces -one of them is Mardin Province (Mayor of it Ahmet Türk, independent candidate supported by BDP) - women are co-mayors.

Districts 

Female mayors in 33 districts

According to the unconfirmed election results 33 districts have female mayors. BDP comes first with 22 female mayors. Both AKP and CHP have 5 female mayors. 32 female mayors are in the districts. Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) has one female mayor in a district.

46 co-mayors

22 female candidates have become mayors in the districts. 46 women from BDP have become co-chairman. According to the unconfirmed election results, BDP has won in 11 provinces and 68 districts along the independent candidate they supported in Mardin province. Besides 24 woman mayors from BDP, 54 women elected as co-chairman will rule with men.

The youngest winners and highest vote rates belong to women

Women are the youngest and who have the highest vote rates in mayorship. Prominent information about woman mayors: 

* For the first time women have been elected as Metropolitan Mayors.

* Rezan Zuğurli a 25 year-old woman elected from Lice district of Diyarbakır province is the youngest mayor. Februniye Akyol the same age with Zuğurli and also an Assyrian has become co-chairman in Mardin province.

* Rezan Zuğurli has been elected with 90% vote rates in Lice.

* Leyla İmret a 27 year- old woman has become mayor with 83% vote rates in Cizre. Her father died when she was 5. İmret emigrated to Mersin province with her mother first and then to Germany.

* Berivan Elif Kılıç, a former child bride has become mayor in Kocaköy district of Diyarbakır from BDP.

* 5 districts have woman mayors – 4 women from CHP, one woman from MHP. Last time İzmir province had not any female mayors.

* Kiraz district of İzmir province has female mayor from MHP. In last election İzmir province had not any women who won the election.

* Hakkari province will be ruled by a woman for the first time. Dilek Hatipoğlu is from BDP.

3.3% of ballot cards include women

According to the data of Women’s Coalition, 3.3& of the mayor candidates who would be in ballot papers during the elections are women. 96.7% of them are men. With the help of co-mayor candidates of BDP and Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) this rate includes 6.8% women and 93.2% men. 

The rates of elected women candidates:

* 16 mayors from 1394 AKP mayor candidates are women, in other words 1.1% women, 98.9% men.

* 51 mayors from 1180 CHP mayor candidates are women, in other words 4.3%women, 95.7% men.

*35 mayors from 1394 MHP mayor candidates are women, in other words 2.5% women, 97.5% men.

* 31 mayors from 224 BDP mayor candidates are women, in other words 13.8% women, 86.2% men.

Besides 31 woman candidates, there are 93 woman co-chairman candidates.

Female mayors in districts

According to the unconfirmed results, woman mayors from the parties as below:

* Click here to read the article in Turkish. (BD/BM)