Since the March 31 local elections, 56 mayors have switched to the AKP.

The AKP's 24th anniversary celebrations were attended by mayors from various political parties and independents. Nine mayors, including Aydın Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Özlem Çerçioğlu, joined the AKP.

August 16, 2025 07:26

Updated: August 16, 2025 07:33

Since the local elections held on March 31, 2024, 56 mayors have passed to the AKP.

The fallout from Aydın Metropolitan Mayor Özlem Çerçioğlu, who has served in the CHP for 23 years, joining the AKP continues. According to insiders , two other CHP mayors are reportedly in talks with the AKP.

According to the news in the Türkiye newspaper; as of the local elections of March 31, 2024, 56 mayors joined the AKP, including 24 from the Yeniden Refah Party, 14 from independents, seven from the CHP, seven from the İyi Party, one from the Felicity Party, one from the DEM Party, one from the DEVA Party, and one from independents.

The provinces that have so far switched to the AKP are Konya, Aydın, Ordu, Samsun, Gaziantep , Şanlıurfa, Trabzon , Manisa, Yalova , Çanakkale, Isparta , Aksaray, Kastamonu, Batman, Elazığ , Kütahya, Çankırı, Şırnak , Adıyaman, Erzincan, Muş , Ağrı, Bingöl , Kırşehir, Sivas , and Uşak .

The Republican People's Party (CHP) came in first for the first time since the 1977 local elections, with 37.81 percent of the vote. The CHP won in 14 metropolitan cities, including the capital Ankara and the largest province, Istanbul, while the AKP, with 35.48 percent of the vote, finished second for the first time in its history. The New Welfare Party, in its first local election, came in third overall with 6.19 percent, notably winning one metropolitan city, one provincial city, and numerous districts.

In addition, CHP took 314 district municipalities and AKP took 346 district municipalities.