2019 Turkish local elections

The Turkish local elections of 2019 were held on Sunday 31 March 2019 throughout the 81 provinces of Turkey. A total of 30 metropolitan and 1,351 district municipal mayors, alongside 1,251 provincial and 20,500 municipal councillors were elected, in addition to numerous local non-partisan positions such as neighbourhood representatives (muhtars) and elderly people's councils.

The governing Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) contested the elections in many provinces under a joint People's Alliance. Likewise, the Republican People's Party (CHP) and the İYİ Party entered some of the races under the Nation Alliance banner. The Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) did not openly announce support for either alliance, but did not field candidates in some areas to improve the chances of opposition candidates. The strategic voting and the refraining from fielding candidates by the HDP in contested areas like Ankara, and Istanbul allowed the opposition parties to gain a majority in these cities, through cooperation.

Campaigning was described as distinctly negative and divisive, with the opposition blaming the government for Turkey's economic downturn and alleging misuse of public funds and corruption. In response, the government criticized the opposition parties for acting in the interests of foreign powers and terrorist groups, namely the PKK. Particular controversy surrounded the AK Party's allegations of financial fraud against the opposition's Ankara mayoral candidate Mansur Yavaş, which later turned out to have been made by an unverifiable source. The use of video footage of the Christchurch terrorist attack by AK Party leader and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during his election rallies caused diplomatic relations between Turkey and New Zealand to sour. Five people were killed and two were injured during political violence on election day, in two separate incidents in Gaziantep and Malatya. The election was criticized by some observers due to alleged media bias in favour of the governing People's Alliance.

The members of the Nation Alliance were initially beset with issues concerning candidate selection and inner-party divisions, stemming from their general election loss in June 2018. However, both the CHP and the İYİ Party collectively managed to outperform expectations, securing 'shock' victories in Turkey's major metropolitan areas. These included winning control of both Ankara and Istanbul, Turkey's capital and largest city respectively. The CHP also held control of İzmir, Turkey's third largest city, and now governs 5 of Turkey's 6 largest population centres (the only exception being Bursa, where the governing coalition narrowly won). The Communist Party won control of a provincial capital, namely Tunceli, for the first time. In provinces where the AK Party and MHP contested as separate parties, there was a substantial swing from AK Party candidates to the MHP. Nevertheless, AK Party leader and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan claimed victory, and the People's Alliance indeed won the plurality of votes with just under 50%, while the opposition Nation Alliance won 38%.

The election was beset by a number of controversies, including an unexplained results blackout on election night just when the opposition were on the verge of victory in Istanbul. The Electoral Board also invalidated the successful election of by the approved candidates from the pro-Kurdish HDP and following awarded the mayorships to the AK Party. The Istanbul mayoral election, where CHP candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu defeated AK Party candidate and former Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım by just under 14,000 votes (0.17%), remained disputed for two weeks after the vote. This result was made public after a blackout, by which point the CHP candidate was up by more than 24,000 votes. Numerous recounts, electoral complaints, legal disputes, alleged corruption, accusations of terrorist involvement and police operations took place after the election, initiated mainly by the AK Party. İmamoğlu was sworn in as mayor, though a new election was held on 23 June. The result was an unexpected victory for İmamoğlu, who defeated Yıldırım, 54.2% to 45%.

Turkey holds local elections every five years in the final Sunday of March. The last election, held on 30 March 2014, resulted in a victory for the governing Justice and Development Party (AK Party), which won control of both Istanbul and Ankara, Turkey's top two cities. The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) came second, winning control of İzmir, Turkey's third largest city. The elections were the first test of support following widespread antigovernmental protests in Summer 2013 and a corruption scandal in December 2013. The elections resulted in numerous allegations of electoral fraud, as well as re-runs in districts such as Yalova and Ağrı where recounts and fraud allegations failed to return a decisive winner.

The 2019 elections followed two landmark elections that were held on 24 June 2018, namely a presidential vote and a parliamentary vote, where the incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was re-elected with 52.59% of the vote. With his re-election, he assumed widely expanded executive powers that were approved by voters in a highly controversial constitutional referendum in 2017. His AK Party lost its majority in the Grand National Assembly but retains its majority with support from the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), together with which the AK Party forms an electoral alliance named the People's Alliance. The 2019 local elections were the last scheduled elections to be held in Turkey until 14 May 2023.

Following the election of the 27th Parliament of Turkey on 24 June 2018, the AK Party government publicly announced its intention to bring the local elections forward from March 2019 to November 2018. Although the opposition claimed they were ready for a local election, they did not publicly back the government's call. It was speculated that the government's desire for an early election was related to the sharp economic downturn that took place shortly after the June 2018 elections, with fears that it would lead to a reduction in the AK Party's vote share.