Putting the Outcome of the 29 March 2009 Turkish Local Administrations Election in Perspective

SETA PUBLIC LECTURE By  Ali T. Akarca  Department of Economics, University of Illinois at Chicago Chair Talip Küçükcan SETA Date: June 23, 2009 Tuesday  Time: 16.00 – 18.00 Venue: SETA Foundation, Ankara

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Turkey's Local Elections of 2009: Results, Trends and the Future

This article aims at presenting a descriptive account of the March 2009 local elections in Turkey. Comparing the general and local elections since 2004, an overall evaluation of trends in electoral preferences is presented. Using provincial general council election results, a detailed geographical comparative analysis of the 2004 and 2009 local elections is also carried out. The analyses show that the AKP’s rise has stalled but it still remains as the dominant power in the party system. The electoral map continues to be divided between the coastal western and most developed provinces where the opposition is significantly supported, the east and southeastern provinces where the Kurdish ethnic electoral support is rising and the more conservative provinces in between where the AKP continues to be dominant with the MHP trailing behind. Even though the March 2009 elections had all the characteristics of a local election, they also revel the rising trends in electoral behaviour in Turkey.

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