Local Elections '14: Istanbul - Will Turkey's ruling party hold decade-old grip?
Politics |
Istanbul's voters will choose their mayor on Sunday, in a key city for the AK Party.
Istanbuls mayoral elections on Sunday will determine the future of Turkeys largest province where the ruling AK Party's story began. The AK Party candidate and current mayor Kadir Topbas, who won 44.2 percent of the votes in 2009, is running for a third term in the March 30 local elections. Topbas will face opponent Mustafa Sarigul, the current mayor of Istanbuls Sisli district municipality the center of trade and shopping.
Sarigul is a member of the main opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP), and returned as the party's candidate last November after previously being dismissed because of internal conflicts with the partys former leader, Deniz Baykal.
The votes on Sunday will determine who will be the next mayor in Istanbul where Turkeys Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan served as the city's mayor, between 1994 and 1998, and managed to tackle many of provinces problems such as water shortage, pollution and traffic congestion.
More than a decade later, Istanbul has new, more ambitious projects planned: a third Bosphorus bridge, a third international airport and an artificial sea-level waterway called Canal Istanbul that is designed to minimize risks for vessels carrying crude oil tanks while passing through the Bosphorus traffic.
Sarigul, main opposition's contender, opposes the locations and the way the projects are being built, claiming they would cause hazards to Istanbul's surrounding nature and that they should be relocated to different sites. Topbas, however, says the claims are false and only based on political calculations.
The Bosphorus provides transportation for at least 55,000 vessels each year. Around 16,000 of these vessels are tanks carrying fuel, which Topbas says has been the cause of numerous ship fires in the past, underlining the dangers of traffic along the straits.
If elected as the next mayor of Istanbul, Sarigul plans to restore parts of a district on the European side of province called Beyoglu, by removing the advertising signs and air-conditioners that hang outside of buildings.
The construction of school buildings resistant to earthquakes in Istanbul is also part of Sarigul's campaign. His plan is to demolish 50 schools and then rebuild them.
Topbas campaigns for the reconstruction of city forests in eight different regions surrounding Istanbul over the next five years.
Sarigul is a member of the main opposition Republican Peoples Party (CHP), and returned as the party's candidate last November after previously being dismissed because of internal conflicts with the partys former leader, Deniz Baykal.
The votes on Sunday will determine who will be the next mayor in Istanbul where Turkeys Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan served as the city's mayor, between 1994 and 1998, and managed to tackle many of provinces problems such as water shortage, pollution and traffic congestion.
More than a decade later, Istanbul has new, more ambitious projects planned: a third Bosphorus bridge, a third international airport and an artificial sea-level waterway called Canal Istanbul that is designed to minimize risks for vessels carrying crude oil tanks while passing through the Bosphorus traffic.
Sarigul, main opposition's contender, opposes the locations and the way the projects are being built, claiming they would cause hazards to Istanbul's surrounding nature and that they should be relocated to different sites. Topbas, however, says the claims are false and only based on political calculations.
The Bosphorus provides transportation for at least 55,000 vessels each year. Around 16,000 of these vessels are tanks carrying fuel, which Topbas says has been the cause of numerous ship fires in the past, underlining the dangers of traffic along the straits.
If elected as the next mayor of Istanbul, Sarigul plans to restore parts of a district on the European side of province called Beyoglu, by removing the advertising signs and air-conditioners that hang outside of buildings.
The construction of school buildings resistant to earthquakes in Istanbul is also part of Sarigul's campaign. His plan is to demolish 50 schools and then rebuild them.
Topbas campaigns for the reconstruction of city forests in eight different regions surrounding Istanbul over the next five years.
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