In the conference center of the AKP headquarters in Istanbul, surrounded by his party’s executives and with his wife Emine by his side, President Erdoğan announced, to the continuous cheers of his friendly audience, his party’s ambitious manifesto for the critical local March 31 elections.

“In democracies in any kind of electoral process the people who choose those who will govern their country or their cities demand accountability and each election is the starting point of a new era. Elections are the most reliable legitimation of governments whether it is a general election or for local elections. Let March 31 be a day of democracy, he said, announcing the slogan of the local elections “real municipal self-government for the Century of Turkey”.

Eight sections comprise the manifesto of the AKP. Its central concepts are participation, transparency and responsibility. The text refers to resilient cities and measures to prepare cities for natural disasters, the importance of urban transformation, city-environment relations, measures for sustainable and environmentally friendly cities. And for cities that produce culture. President Erdoğan will take the entire task of local elections upon himself. In February he will plow the country promoting his candidates, as he did in the May elections. Predictions say that once again, many of the candidates will likely win by a question mark in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir.

Ariana Ferentinou, Istanbul