CHP leader backs Mansur Yavaş for re-election as Ankara mayor

Kılıçdaroğlu and Yavaş (Photo: AA/File)

Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leader of the main opposition party, has confirmed the candidacy of the mayor of Ankara for next year's local elections.

During an event in the capital city on Saturday to mark the 100th anniversary of the Republican People's Party (CHP), Kılıçdaroğlu said, "Mansur is our mayor and the candidate for mayor."

Yavaş, who was also present at the event, did not comment on the issue. In late August, he said he wanted to run for re-election.

In the 2019 elections, Yavaş defeated the candidate of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), ending the 25-year rule of the AKP and its predecessors in the city. In that election, Yavaş received support not only from the CHP but also from its main ally, the Good (İYİ) Party, while the Kurdish-focused HDP did not field a candidate in what was perceived as implicit support.

However, following President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's win in the May elections, which led to the break-up of the opposition alliance, both the İYİ Party and the HDP announced they would field their own candidates in the local elections.

Considering the parties' levels of voter support, these three parties supporting the same candidate seemed to be the only feasible way to defeat the AKP-MHP alliance in the local elections scheduled for March 31. In the general election, the CHP got 30 percent of the votes, İYİ Party got 13.1 percent and the HDP, which ran in the election under the Green Left Party banner, got 2.9 percent in Ankara. The combined voting rate of the AKP and the MHP was over 42 percent.

Yavaş's background

Having roots in the ultranationalist MHP and a background as an activist and leader in the 1970s Grey Wolves, Yavaş was a member of the party from 1993 to 2013. He served as the mayor of Ankara's Beypazarı district between 1999 and 2009.

Between 2013 and 2016, he was active in the CHP and narrowly lost the 2014 local elections for Ankara mayor against the AKP's Melih Gökçek. Yavaş ran for mayor for the second time in the 2019 local elections and emerged as the winner. As a local leader with significant responsibilities during his tenure as mayor, his name was mentioned among the potential presidential candidates from the opposition.

Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who ran for president as the joint candidate of the opposition bloc in the May election, had nominated Yavaş and İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu as his vice presidential candidates. (VK)