Menderes deputy mayoralty passes to AKP; CHP instructs its own members to vote for NEW Party

In the Menderes district of İzmir, following the detention of Mayor İlkay Çiçek as part of an investigation conducted by İzmir's Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, the Municipal Council convened in an extraordinary session on Monday. In a four-round vote, AKP candidate Asuman Şen secured 15 of the 27 votes cast and was elected deputy mayor. With this, control of Menderes Municipality—won by the CHP in the 2024 local elections—has passed to the AKP. The news was reported by Ekonomim.

CHP Party Spokesperson Müslim Sarı made a surprising admission in a statement posted on social media following the election: he acknowledged that CHP headquarters had instructed its own council members to support NEW Party candidate Barış Gürsoy in order to prevent the municipality from passing to the AKP. Sarı also announced that disciplinary proceedings would be considered against members who did not follow the instruction.

This situation reflects a rare tension in Turkish local politics: the main opposition party formally sought votes for a candidate from a party it regards as a breakaway, while its own members refused. Menderes, won in the 2024 elections through a CHP–NEW Party partnership (at a time when NEW Party was still within the CHP), has now become a test case for both the rupture between the two parties and the CHP's internal authority. While Sarı attributed the outcome directly to the NEW Party's 'rejection of compromise,' the council arithmetic tells a different story: the AKP candidate received 15 votes; the NEW Party candidate received the remaining 12.