The People's Equality and Democracy Party (HEDEP), which determined the political line of the new period with the suggestions made in the public meetings held in the cities of Kurdistan and Turkey after the May elections, is entering the March 31 Local Elections with the road map it has drawn in this context. HEDEP will hold a primary election to determine candidates in line with the demands of the public; thus, in this primary election called 'City Consensus', both metropolitan and provincial and district municipality co-mayors will be determined by the votes of the people.

 

Mehmet Rüştü Tiryaki, MP CoChair of HEDEP Democratic Local Governments Board, evaluated the political line they determined regarding the local elections.

 

PRE-SELECTION WILL BE HELD IN 200 CENTERS

 

Stating that they had experience in determining candidates with different primary election models in previous processes, Tiryaki said: "The 'City Consensus' model is more comprehensive and broader than previous models. This time, we will determine our candidates with the participation of wider segments of society. Our claim is to hold primary elections in approximately 200 places where we are the first and second party and where there are primary election conditions."

 

THE PUBLIC WILL ALSO DETERMINE THE MUNICIPAL COUNCIL MEMBERS

 

Underlining that all candidates will be determined through primary elections, Tiryaki said: “Perhaps we will break new ground in this country; We will determine not only the municipal co-mayor candidates but also the municipal council members and two-thirds of the provincial general council members through primary elections. Our people will choose whomever they want to see as a candidate. Voting will also be held in districts for metropolitan municipality co-mayors. People will have the right to nominate candidates not only in the city center of Amed, Wan or Merdîn, but also in their districts."

 

EQUAL REPRESENTATION WILL BE BASED ON

 

Tiryaki informed that if the candidates do not receive more than 50 percent of the votes, the second round of the election will be held with the two candidates who received the most votes, and said: "The municipality co-mayor candidate who receives the most votes in the second round will be held. In the primary election, we will have female candidates on one side of the ballot paper and male candidates on the other. We will determine our candidates based on our equal representation model, not only for municipal co-mayorships but also for other areas."

 

CONSTITUENTS WILL ALSO PARTICIPATE IN THE PRE-SELECTION

 

Stating that very few political parties have held primary elections to date and drew attention to the rights in the Constitution regarding primary elections, Tiryaki said: "The Law No. 298 stipulates that only party members can determine the candidates in the primary election. According to the law, no one can vote except the members of the political party conducting the primary election. But we want all of our component parties to vote. In other words, many of our components such as HEDEP, HDP, DBP, ESP, Devrimci Parti, SODAP and SYKP will be able to vote in the primary elections. We want the youth and women's council, as well as Peace Mothers, democratic mass organizations and non-governmental organizations to vote. We will form a delegation with the components I listed.”

 

A 'WINNING' ALLIANCE

 

Answering the question of whether there will be an alliance in the local elections, Tiryaki said: "We will enter the elections with the candidates who stand out as a result of the primary elections in Kurdistan, but we have not yet received candidate applications in Turkey. We are open to cooperation in the elections; however, we have a different cooperation goal than previous corporations. In the public opinion surveys we conducted or the public meetings we held, we saw that our people are not closed to cooperation. They only have criticism based on the form of this alliance. They want this to be a more open, transparent and winning alliance. If we are going to cooperate, it should also bring benefits to us. This is the public's warning. Rest assured, we will look after the interests of our people in the alliance."

 

Stating that they are continuing their negotiations with the left, socialist and democratic mass organizations within the scope of this alliance, but they have not been finalized yet. Tiryaki said: “We have not had such an initiative with CHP or any other party yet. I want this to be known too."

 

THE POLICY OF TRUSTEE

 

Stating that the trustee practice caused an emotional breakdown in the public and Tiryaki continued as follows: "The AKP must have liked winning a municipality without an election, because in 2019, it launched an investigation against our elected friends with flimsy excuses, and even suspended our co-mayors from office when there was no investigation and appointed trustees in their place. He also dissolved the assemblies; however, neither the trustee appointment in 2016 nor in 2019 received the support of the public. The political power knows this very well. The opposition as a whole does not find the trustee policy correct. A significant portion of AKP voters do not find the trustee policy correct. I can say that AKP will not be comfortable appointing trustees for the next period because this is a practice that causes emotional breakdown in Kurds.”

 

MA / Mehmet Aslan