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

In the Menderes district of İzmir, the Municipal Council convened in extraordinary session on Monday following the arrest 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 its members to vote for a candidate from a party it considers a breakaway, only to have those 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 rift between the two parties and the CHP's internal authority. While Sarı attributed the outcome directly to YENİ Party's refusal to reach an agreement, the council arithmetic tells a different story: the AKP candidate received 15 votes, the YENİ Party candidate the remaining 12.