Deputy Mayor Position Moves to AKP in Menderes; CHP Instructed Its Own Members to Vote for 'YENİ Party'

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

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

This situation reflects a tension rarely seen in Turkish local politics: the main opposition party formally asked members to vote for a candidate of a party considered breakaway, only to have its own members refuse. Menderes, won through a CHP-YENİ Party partnership in the 2024 elections (when YENİ Party was still within the CHP structure), has now become a testing ground for both the split between the two parties and the CHP's internal authority. While Sarı attributed the outcome directly to YENİ Party's rejection of compromise, the council arithmetic tells a different story: the AKP candidate received 15 votes, while the YENİ Party candidate received the remaining 12.