Local elections in Turkey

CHP’S LGBTI Candidates Not Elected due to Low Ranks on the List

Source: “CHP’den LGBTİ Adaylar Son Sıralarda Olduğundan Seçilemedi,” (“CHP’s LGBTI Candidates Not Elected due to Low Ranks on the List”) KaosGL.org, 18 April 2014, http://kaosgl.org/sayfa.php?id=16365

CHP’s woman deputies critiqued Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu for ranking the LGBTI candidates low on the list of candidates and for not abiding by the 33% quota for women candidates.

According to Ayşe Sayın’s news story in Cumhuriyet, CHP’s (Republican People’s Party) Bursa deputy Sena Kaleli organized a dinner upon the request of women deputies. At this dinner, deputies raised complaints about various CHP organizations’ careless and patriarchal attitudes in regard to women candidates.

“LGBTI individuals were ranked very low”

CHP’s Istanbul deputy Binnaz Toprak stated that the 33% quota for women was not implemented in the local elections and that women were not listed as candidates in places where they had stronger chances to be elected. She pointed out that CHP failed to represent all sectors of society. She said, “CHP nominated LGBTI individuals for the city council but they were ranked so low on the list that they could not be elected.”

Ankara deputy and former CHP group deputy chairman Emine Ülker Tarhan stated that she was dismayed by how HDP surpassed CHP in terms of women’s representation. She said, “You promised us that the number of women mayors and women city council members would increase. But that did not happen.”

“Women candidate names were replaced with men’s”

Women deputies critiqued various CHP organizations’ attitudes and actions in regards to women candidates and also claimed that there were some instances where the organization would replace a woman’s name on the list with a male candidate of their preference.

Kılıçdaroğlu accepted the criticism about women’s representation and declared that there would be detailed studies on this issue during this term towards building a new model and especially in relation to the organization of women’s branches.