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Erdoğan names 14 more mayoral candidates

Ersin Çelik
12:14 - 6/12/2018 Thursday
Update: 12:38 - 6/12/2018 Thursday
REUTERS
President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

Turkey’s president and ruling party leader on Thursday named 14 more mayoral candidates for local elections next March, but kept the candidate for Istanbul -- which holds nearly one-fifth of Turkey's population -- under wraps.

Candidates for one large metropolitan municipality and 13 provincial municipalities were announced by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, head of the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party, at party headquarters in the capital Ankara.

Erdoğan nominated Necdet Takva, head of the chamber of industry and commerce for the eastern province of Van, for the mayor of metropolitan Van, the province’s capital.

Other candidates are as follows: for the city of Agri - Savci Sayan; Aksaray - Enver Dincer; Bilecik - Nihat Can; Erzincan - Cemalettin Bassoy; Edirne - Koray Uymaz; Igdir - Adil Asirim; Isparta - Sukru Basdegirmen; Kars - Ensar Erdogdu; Kırşehir - Yasar Bahceci; Kütahya - Ahmet Sami Kutlu; Siirt - Ali Ilbas; Tunceli - Gokhan Arslan; and Zonguldak - Omer Selim Alan.

With the 60 mayoral candidates Erdogan announced previously -- including candidates for Ankara and Izmir and 12 more metropolitan municipalities -- to date the ruling AK Party has announced 74 provincial mayoral candidates.

Turkey’s local elections are scheduled for March 31, 2019.

Erdoğan says Turkey will hold Kanal Istanbul tender next year

Turkey will hold a tender for the construction of a 45-km shipping canal running parallel to the Bosphorus, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Thursday, despite a government freeze on new investments as it reins in spending.

"The Kanal Istanbul has been delayed too much. We will hold a tender for it in 2019 and start the process," Erdoğan told a meeting of his AK Party in Ankara.

#Turkey
#Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
#Kanal Istanbul
#mayoral candidates
#local elections
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