2004 Turkish local elections

2004 Turkish local elections

March 28, 2004 (2004-03-28)
All 16 metropolitan and 3,193 district municipal mayors of Turkey All 3,208 provincial and 34,477 municipal councillors of Turkey
Majority party Minority party Third party   Leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Deniz Baykal Devlet Bahçeli Party AK Party CHP MHP Leader since 14 August 2001 30 September 2000 6 July 1997 Last election New party 373 mayors, 11.08% 247 mayors, 3,579 councillors, 10.45% Mayors 1,762 469 247 Councillors 18,913 6,023 3,579 Popular vote^ 13,477,287 5,882,810 3,372,249 Percentage 41.67% 18.23% 10.45% Swing 41.67% 7.15% 6.72%
Results map showing the winners of the 81 provincial capitals of Turkey by party. ^ Four different elections in order to elect both types of councillor and mayor were held on the same day. The results shown here are the provincial councillor election results, which best reflect the overall voting intentions of the electorate. See the results section for the full results.

The Turkish local elections of 2004 were held throughout the eighty-one Provinces of Turkey on 28 March 2004 in order to elect both mayors and councillors to local government positions. All 16 metropolitan and 3,193 district municipalities were up for election, while 3,208 provincial and 34,477 municipal councillors were also elected. More than 50,000 neighbourhood presidents (muhtars) were also elected, though these do not have any political affiliations.

With almost 42 percent of votes across the country, the ruling AKP increased the 34 percent it won in the 2002 national parliamentary elections by an extra 8 percent. The only opposition party with representation in Parliament, the Kemalist Republican People's Party (CHP), received 19 percent of the votes. The traditional parties of the Turkish establishment lost further ground. The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), despite suffering a loss of 6% in their popular vote share, won above 10% of the votes. This bode well for their 2007 general election prospects, since 10% is the election threshold needed to win seats in Parliament.

In the event, the CHP was only able to maintain a degree of support in the provincial regions on the Turkish west coast. Among the four major cities the party was only able to win İzmir, with the AKP winning a majority in the cities of Istanbul, Adana and the Turkish capital, Ankara. The AKP also took the tourist centre Antalya, where the head of the CHP, Deniz Baykal, was the party’s candidate.

The main political arm of the Kurdish nationalist movement, the Democratic People's Party (DEHAP), entered these elections in a coalition with five small socialist parties, yet together these parties received fewer votes (5 percent) than the DEHAP received alone in the 2002 elections (6.1 percent).

Results

Provincial assemblies

Party		Votes	%	Seats
	Justice and Development Party	13,447,287	41.67	2,276
	Republican People's Party	5,882,810	18.23	392
	Nationalist Movement Party	3,372,249	10.45	178
	True Path Party	3,216,213	9.97	156
	Social Democratic People's Party	1,662,280	5.15	129
	Felicity Party	1,297,681	4.02	19
	Young Party	839,856	2.60	4
	Motherland Party	807,761	2.50	26
	Democratic Left Party	683,266	2.12	9
	Great Unity Party	374,125	1.16	7
	Independent Turkey Party	154,495	0.48	0
	Communist Party of Turkey	85,178	0.26	0
	Workers' Party	79,774	0.25	0
	New Turkey Party	79,584	0.25	0
	Labour Party	18,695	0.06	1
	Freedom and Solidarity Party	12,379	0.04	0
	Nation Party	8,711	0.03	0
	Democratic Party	7,837	0.02	2
	Bright Turkey Party	3,872	0.01	0
	Independents	234,443	0.73	9
Total		32,268,496	100.00	3,208
Valid votes		32,268,496	97.16
Invalid/blank votes		942,961	2.84
Total votes		33,211,457	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		43,552,931	76.26
Source: Supreme Election Council

By province

Metropolitan provinces are in bold. AKP denotes provinces won by the Justice & Development Party, CHP denotes provinces won by the Republican People's Party, MHP denotes provinces won by the Nationalist Movement Party, DSP denotes provinces won by the Democratic Left Party, DYP denotes provinces won by the True Path Party and SP denotes provinces won by the Felicity Party.

Province Party Adana AKP Adıyaman AKP Afyonkarahisar AKP Ağrı AKP Amasya AKP Ankara AKP Antalya AKP Artvin CHP Aydın AKP Balıkesir AKP Bilecik AKP Bingöl AKP Bitlis AKP Bolu AKP Burdur AKP Bursa AKP Çanakkale CHP

Province Party Çankırı AKP Çorum AKP Denizli AKP Diyarbakır DGB Edirne CHP Elazığ DYP Erzincan AKP Erzurum AKP Eskişehir DSP Gaziantep AKP Giresun AKP Gümüşhane MHP Hakkâri DGB Hatay AKP Isparta AKP Mersin CHP Istanbul AKP

Province Party İzmir CHP Kars AKP Kastamonu MHP Kayseri AKP Kırklareli CHP Kırşehir AKP Kocaeli AKP Konya AKP Kütahya AKP Malatya AKP Manisa AKP Kahramanmaraş AKP Mardin SP Muğla CHP Muş AKP Nevşehir AKP Niğde MHP

Province Party Ordu DSP Rize AKP Sakarya AKP Samsun AKP Siirt AKP Sinop AKP Sivas AKP Tekirdağ AKP Tokat AKP Trabzon CHP Tunceli DGB Şanlıurfa AKP Uşak AKP Van AKP Yozgat AKP Zonguldak AKP Aksaray AKP

Province Party Bayburt AKP Karaman AKP Kırıkkale AKP Batman DGB Şırnak DGB Bartın DSP Ardahan IND. Iğdır MHP Yalova AKP Karabük AKP Kilis AKP Osmaniye AKP Düzce AKP