The Republican People’s Party (CHP) emerged as the first party in the local elections, winning municipalities in provinces and districts where it had not won for decades. CHP, which won throughout Turkey, lost in Hatay, which was the most damaged by the earthquake and continues to struggle with the problems caused by the earthquake. Alright What caused CHP to lose Hatay? Was CHP’s Lütfü Savaş the wrong candidate, did the candidate selection process erode Savaş’s name, did President Erdoğan’s statements change the voting preferences of the people of Hatay? The city’s leading names, political scientists and CHP politicians answered these questions on Medyascope.
The election results of Hatay in the Local Elections of March 31, 2024, or more precisely, whether the people of Hatay will choose the current HBB President Lütfü Savaş again, became a matter of curiosity throughout Turkey. In the city where the February 6 earthquakes caused the greatest destruction and the wounds are still unhealed, voters went to the elections with many problems such as bad roads, cut off electricity, water and shelter.
The most talked about and criticized name in the city since the earthquake was the then CHP Metropolitan Mayor Lütfü Savaş. Whenever asked why the city did not recover, Savaş stated that the municipality, municipal employees and their families were also “affected by the earthquake”. After the earthquake in the city, along with many municipalities, CHP’s Ankara Metropolitan Municipality and Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality established disaster coordination centers and were in solidarity with Hata for months. Hatay was also on the agenda of almost all political parties and politics.
When the calendar showed February 23, 2023, during a visit to the city by CHP members, a Hatay resident, alongside the then CHP Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, called on HBB President Lütfü Savaş to resign: “President, we were also pleased with you, but I ask, please, it is a matter of honor.” “I want you to resign,” he said. Medyascope During these moments recorded by the cameras, Savaş’s resignation began to be discussed.
While the city is trying to heal its wounds, election campaigns for the 2023 General Elections have begun in Hatay, as in all of Turkey. At that time, the people of Hatay, who were still searching for their relatives who could not reach their relatives’ bodies, who had to live in tents and whose fate was unknown, were actually not very pleased with the rallies held in the city. The people of Hatay, who voted for Kılıçdaroğlu with a narrow margin in the first round of the 2023 General Elections, said “Erdoğan” in the second round of the election. Erdogan won the city by a 0.05 percentage point margin in the second round.
After about a year, all eyes turned to Hatay, along with Ankara and Istanbul, which were the most curious results in the local election results. It was wondered whether CHP would nominate Savaş again, and other candidates were being discussed. CHP decided to continue with Savaş. The biggest reaction to this decision was given by the people of Hatay on the night of the February 6 commemoration: CHP’s new Chairman Özel and Savaş were protested with applause and whistles, and slogans of “resignation” were shouted.
While Savaş evaluated the protest as “political material”, CHP began to reconsider its options. Offers were made to artist Haluk Levent and actor Mert Fırat, but no results were obtained, and Chairman Özel announced that they decided to continue with Savaş.
While CHP’s candidate discussions for Hatay continued, AKP Chairman and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan went to Hatay on February 3 for the first anniversary of the February 6 earthquakes. Speaking here, Erdoğan said, “If the central government and the local government do not join hands and are not in solidarity, nothing will come to that city. Did he come to Hatay? he threatened. These sentences, which Erdogan “intimidated”, continued to remain on the agenda from the day he made the statement until the election.
Local elections in Hatay were held between CHP’s candidate Lütfü Savaş and AKP’s candidate Mehmet Öntürk. CHP, which won throughout Türkiye, lost in Hatay with 0.43 percent of the votes and Hatay turned yellow on the map. 261 thousand 276 of 1 million 78 thousand 130 voters in the city did not go to the polls. 38 thousand 903 votes were deemed invalid in the elections.
On and after the election night, CHP officials and Savaş came to the Provincial Election Board and made a statement and announced that they would object.
As a result of the objection, the incorrectly processed votes were edited and the gap narrowed, the difference fell to approximately 2,500 votes, but it did not close. CHP’s application to hold new elections in the city was rejected on the grounds of complete illegality. AKP’s Mehmet Öntürk’s metropolitan mayoralty has been confirmed.
Thus, CHP, which won throughout Türkiye, lost the election in Hatay.
“Lütfü Savaş became politicized rather than dealing with the problems of Hatay people”
CHP’s loss in Hatay MedyascopeEvaluating , political scientist Tanju Tosun said that the right-wing parties in Hatay consolidated their voters, but at the same time, Lütfü Savaş also had a mass in Hatay.
Stating that the opponents of the war gathered in the People’s Alliance parties, Tosun said, “Therefore, the opposition of the AKP and MHP voters to the War may be due to their very strict ideological preferences. Savaş was a political actor in the AKP in the past. “With the effect of leaving the AKP, it may have been more difficult for AKP voters to turn to Savaş after he became the CHP candidate,” he said.
Tosun underlined that there was a perception among voters that supporting the candidate of the political power during the construction process of the city would yield faster results in Hatay’s recovery.
Stating that the priority issue of the city is to eliminate the situation caused by the earthquake, Tosun said that the voters may have developed the idea that “If we vote for the candidate of an opposition party, the ruined state of Hatay will not be able to recover easily.”
Stating that Savaş’s name came to the fore too much during the candidacy discussions and that Savaş was politicized “a little too much” rather than dealing with the problems of the people of Hatay, Tosun said, “Winning the election has become a big claim for him. For this reason, he kept some voters and alienated opposing voters. Adıyaman, for example, is a typical example in this regard. There is also a candidate of the opposition party in Adıyaman, and they win the election. There is also one in Hatay, but it cannot win elections. Therefore, the most important factor in the Adıyaman candidate winning the election is the support the candidate gave to the city after the earthquake and his constant support of his people. I wonder if Savaş could not do this sufficiently? “This may be one of the factors,” he continued.
“The debates surrounding Lütfü Savaş’s nomination process created distance between him and the voters.“
“Was Lütfü Savaş the wrong candidate?” Evaluating the debates, Tosun said, “Considering the votes Savas received, it seems that there are not many wrong candidates. “He got a lot of votes, we shouldn’t be unfair here,” he said, and at this point, he said that rather than the “wrong candidate” debate, we should look at the tensions experienced during the candidacy process.
Stating that during these discussions, a distance was created between Savaş and the voters who had the potential to vote for him, Tosun said, “He could not receive many votes from the voters who voted for different parties. As far as we understand, he consolidated some of the voters. Those voters again gave their support, but those who reacted to the earthquake withdrew. “As a result, such a picture emerged,” he said.
“CHP fought against all the means of the state in Hatay”
He resigned from his post as CHP Hatay Provincial Chairman after Lütfü Savaş lost the election. Hakan Tiryaki, He said that the Republican People’s Party is fighting against all the means of the state in Hatay.
Hakan Tiryaki stated that CHP also had the municipality, but the municipality experienced the pandemic and the earthquake and was worn out. Medyascope’He said, “The AKP’s threats, people’s grievances, living in containers and tents, and getting rid of these troubles as soon as possible, ‘let’s give it to them for five years’ thoughts, somehow when the AKP wins, we will have our home and shelter again, had a psychology. All of these factors combined. “They brought the process here with many games at the ballot box,” he said.
Explaining that they thought Savaş was the right candidate and that they stood behind him, Tiryaki said, “The comings and goings during the candidacy process wore out the candidate. In other words, it created a problem in people’s trust. We were already injured. This hurt us a little more. “The election was lost due to the damage caused to the party by the people who held office in this party and those who were candidates but could not become candidates,” he continued.
“CHP could not read the message given by the people in Hatay”
Medyascope’Speaking to the former Hatay Bar Association President, CHP HBB Presidential candidate Cihat Açıkalın, He said that CHP could not keep its finger on the pulse of the voters in Hatay, especially the party base.
Expressing that the people of Hatay gave very clear messages, Açıkalın said, “The people gave their message during the February 6 commemoration. They expressed their reactions on social media. In fact, after the candidate was announced, he was protested in the neighborhoods and district visits for election campaigns. The headquarters persistently did not want to read this. I do not know the reason. “If the message given by the people there had been read, we would be talking about something completely different today,” he said.
Pointing out the number of voters who did not vote in the election, Açıkalın stated that the voters protested both the government and the opposition, and that Savaş was not the “people’s candidate”.
Açıkalın stated that the number of votes received by Savaş was even higher and said, “One of the reasons for the large number of votes received is that there were also votes given reluctantly. With the concern that their lifestyle might be interfered with, some of the CHP base voted for Lütfü Bey, even though he was the candidate they criticized, just so that the AKP would not win the election. The scissors could have been bigger. “So when you look at the votes received despite the current reactions, I think it was higher than expected,” he said.
“The bond of love is about to be broken in Hatay”
Expressing that the headquarters insisted on Savaş’s candidacy with the perspective of “a candidate who gets votes in rural areas and in the right-wing segment”, Açıkalın said, “When you look at the election results, even if you collect the votes in the rural areas, especially in his own district, Yayladağı, it is worth a muhtar election vote. On the other hand, even if it had actually received votes, you had lost the votes of the CHP voters located in the central city who voted for you. You want to get votes from the right, but you lose votes from the left. When you calculate the proportions, the votes you lost on the left, that is, the votes your own core voters abstained from giving you in protest, were much more than the votes you could get from the right. We expressed this from time to time and tried to explain it. “But the headquarters thought it would be right to continue with the current candidate,” he said.
Açıkalın underlined that the breaking of ties between Hatay and CHP voters with CHP is a risk for the next elections and said, “The emotional ties are breaking in Hatay. Now, your classic voters’ habit of not voting is about to be established. This happened in the Presidential election. They also showed Necmettin Çalışkan, candidate of the Saadet Party in Hatay, on the lists and he was elected. Therefore, there was a decrease in votes there too. Everyone interpreted this differently, but this was the main reason. Therefore, CHP voters revealed their second reflex here. “If this stubbornness continues, we are afraid that in a possible general election, CHP voters in Hatay may show a much greater reaction,” he said.
Stating that they did not actually lose the election Medyascope’speaking to CHP Hatay Deputy Mehmet Güzelmansur, He stated that the agenda of all national media for the last three or four months has been Lütfü Savaş and CHP, and that they are trying to create a perception as if the cause of the earthquake was the CHP in Hatay.
Stating that they won despite all this, Güzelmansur said, “The vote difference decreased to 2 thousand 590 with our objections. There are 39 thousand invalid votes. “If these had been recounted, we would have been ahead by far,” he said. Stating that no one expected CHP to receive so many votes in Hatay, Güzelmansur said, “Despite so much attrition and efforts to create a perception in the national press and social media, we received this many votes.”
