Kılıçdaroğlu’s former ally provides clues on potential mayoral candidate for Izmir

Local elections in Türkiye are scheduled to be held on March 31, 2024.

Good (Iyi) Party Chairman Meral Akşener, who previously supported CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu’s presidential candidacy against incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said their potential mayoral candidate for Izmir has already been in the field to meet people in the city.

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Pointing out Ümit Özlale, Good Party’s Izmir Deputy, Akşener made this announcement during an interview with journalist Fatih Altaylı on his YouTube channel.

Akşener’s candidate for Izmir

“Ümit Özlale is currently working, and he has declared, ‘I am the candidate.’ Today, I am making this announcement,” Akşener stated.

It’s important to note that while Özlale has signaled his intention to run for the mayoral position in Izmir, his candidacy has not been officially announced yet.

To build awareness for his candidacy, the party’s Özlale shared a video on his social media account, where he can be seen engaging with the people of Izmir ahead of the upcoming elections.

Özlale shared video from city

He added the tag “İzmirVarsaÜmitVar,” which translates to “if there is Izmir, there is hope,” to the video.

Izmir has historically been supportive of the main opposition CHP’s mayoral candidates.

In the 2019 mayoral elections, Meral Akşener and her Good Party supported the candidates Ekrem Imamoğlu and Mansur Yavaş of the main opposition CHP in both Istanbul and Ankara, respectively.

However, Akşener had previously stated that her party would field its own candidates, particularly in Istanbul and Ankara.

Ümit Özlale, the potential mayoral candidate for Izmir, has indicated that they would not support the CHP’s candidates, Imamoğlu in Istanbul and Yavaş in Ankara

Özlale said, “Mr. Ekrem and Mr. Mansur currently hold the positions of mayors within the CHP. It would not be contradictory if we do not endorse them in the upcoming elections.”