Erdoğan picks Murat Kurum to run against İmamoğlu for İstanbul

President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced Murat Kurum, former Minister of Urban Planning, Environment and Climate Change, as the candidate who will run against Ekrem İmamoğlu, the current mayor of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, in the March 31 local elections.

“Our aim is to appear before our nation for the March 31, 2024 elections with candidates who will fulfill our promise of real municipalism. We believe that our goal of the Century of Türkiye will be incomplete without crowning the works and services we have brought to our country in the central administration with the successes in the municipalities,” Erdoğan said at a special event that he announced the candidates for the 11 metropolitan and 15 provincial municipalities on Jan. 7 in İstanbul.

“In fact, we have to pay the bill for the mismanagement of the municipalities of the opposition parties in order not to victimize our nation. No one has the right to put our country and our nation in such a situation,” he added.

Erdoğan had previously announced that he would reveal the candidates for Ankara Metropolitan Municipality and the remaining metropolitan and provincial mayors on December 15 in Ankara.

Technocrat politician Kurum

It is noteworthy that 16 of the 26 mayors announced by Erdoğan are current mayors and 2 are MPs. There are also 2 female politicians among the 26 mayoral candidates.

Murat Kurum took office as the Minister of Environment and Urbanization in the first cabinet announced by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan after the transition to the contentious Presidential Government System in 2018.

During his ministry, he defended the mega construction project Canal Istanbul saying, “It is a project that will make Turkey a leading country in the world.”

The “National Garden” project in Salda Lake, which was called “Turkey’s Maldives”, which was realized during his ministry, drew the reaction of environmentalists and the opposition.

In the May 14 elections, Kurum was elected as a Istanbul lawmaker and currently serves as the chairman of the Parliament’s Environment Commission. He focused on urban transformation projects in Istanbul as part of the measures to be taken against earthquake risk.

The mayoral candidates announced by Erdoğan are as follows:

• Istanbul: Murat Kurum (Former Minister of Urbanization, Environment and Climate Change)
• Kocaeli: Tahir Büyükakın (Current Mayor)
• Eskisehir: Nebi Hatipoğlu (MP who switched from IYI Party to AKP)
• Bursa: Ali Nur Aktas (Current Mayor)
• Denizli: Osman Zolan (Current Mayor)
• Balıkesir: Yücel Yılmaz (Current Mayor)
• Aydin Mustafa Savaş (TBMM Aydın MV)
• Samsun: Halis Dogan (Mayor of Çarşamba)
• Erzurum: Mehmet Sekmen (Current Mayor)
• Mugla: Aydın Ayaydın (Former CHP MP)
• Ordu: Hilmi Güler (Current Mayor)
• Giresun: Aytekin Şenlikoğlu (Current Mayor)
• Elazig: Şahin Şerifoğlu (Current Mayor)
• Edirne: Belgin Iba (AK Party Provincial Chairperson)
• Düzce: Faruk Özlü (Current Mayor)
• Bitlis: Nesrullah Tanğlay (Current Mayor)
• Bingöl: Erdal Arikan (Current Mayor)
• Çanakkale: Jülide İskenderoğlu (Former MP)
• Çankırı: Hüseyin Filiz (Former MP)
• Kastamonu: Tahsin Babaş (Former Mayor)
• Rize: Rahmi Metin (Current Mayor)
• Sinop: Yakup Üçüncüoğlu (Provincial Assembly AK Party Group Chairman)
• Tokat: Eyüp Eroğlu (Current Mayor)
• Yalova: Mustafa Tutuk (Current Mayor)
• Isparta: Şükrü Başdeğirmen (Current Mayor)
• Artvin: Mehmet Kocatepe (Current Mayor)