In Turkey, the obvious candidate for mayor of the city was withdrawn from the elections

In Turkey, the pro-Kurdish DEM party is contesting withdrawal from the elections at the last moment of its candidate, who won the race for the post of mayor of Van municipality, and the decision to declare the winner the candidate from President Erdogan's party, who took second position.

As reported by Reuters, victory in Van municipality Abdullah Zeidan won the local elections with 55.5% of the votes. Candidate from the Justice and Development Party the current President Erdogan received 27.2%.

However, it later became known that Zeidan was removed from the elections, his right to be elected was revoked, and the candidate from Erdogan's party, Abdulahat Arwas, was recognized as the winner.

In The DEM board announced that 2 days before the elections, at the very end of the working day on Friday, the Turkish Ministry of Justice sent a letter in which it challenged Zeidan’s right to be elected, and the court decided that he could not be a candidate, after which they notified Central Election Commission.

It is not clear from the messages on what exact day the decision was made to deprive Zeidan of the right to be elected, and whether this happened before or after the actual voting.

DEM notes , that Zeidan has received the necessary rights since 2022 and passed all checks.

The DEM party said that this unfair decision must be reversed and called its supporters to protest at the regional office. There were clashes during the demonstration and police fired tear gas.

Turkish authorities have been waging a campaign to crack down on the pro-Kurdish political movement since the collapse of the peace process in 2015, accusing it of links to Kurdish militants.

Prepared by: Nina Petrovich