In accordance with Article 22 of Law No. 5355 on Local Administrative Unions and Article 45 of Law No. 5393 on Municipalities, the General Assembly of the Union of Municipalities of Türkiye convened in Ankara upon the call of the Ankara Governorship, with the agenda item “Election of Deputy President.”
The Chairmanship of the Assembly was assumed by the 2nd Deputy Speaker of the Assembly and Mayor of Denizli Metropolitan Municipality, Bülent Nuri Çavuşoğlu. Mayor of Bodrum Tamer Mandalinci and Mayor of Korkuteli Saniye Caran also served as secretaries of the Assembly Board.
Seçer and Genç Nominated for Deputy President
With the submitted motions, Mersin Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Vahap Seçer and Trabzon Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Ahmet Metin Genç were nominated for the position of Deputy President of the Union. The Chair of the Assembly was Bülent Nuri Çavuşoğlu, the TBB 2nd Deputy Speaker of the Assembly.
Çavuşoğlu: “The will of the voters must be respected”
In his opening remarks, Çavuşoğlu recalled the process that began with the arrest of TBB and Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, and TBB Deputy President and Adana Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Zeydan Karalar, emphasizing the necessity of respecting the will of the electorate. Çavuşoğlu underlined that the rule of law and the presumption of innocence must be preserved.
Stating that they were dealing with a case for which an indictment had not even been prepared, Çavuşoğlu said, “It is incompatible with the law to be convicted first and then forced to prove innocence by ignoring the fundamental principle of the presumption of innocence. If law is based on vague claims like ‘I saw’ or ‘I heard,’ it would lead Türkiye toward a state where no one is left untried.”
Çavuşoğlu: “First arrest, then search for evidence”
Çavuşoğlu stressed that if the legal system is shaped according to individuals, similar processes may be imposed on different groups in future changes of power, leaving no one guaranteed property, assets, or freedom. “We are not afraid of being prosecuted, but throwing people in prison first and then trying to collect evidence is not compatible with the law,” he said, defending the need for justice to function impartially and equally.
Çavuşoğlu emphasized that the mentality of “Let the snake that doesn’t bite me live a thousand years” must be abandoned, and pointed out that Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and his comrades-in-arms founded this country by struggling for freedom and independence even in desperate times. “To honor their legacy, we must build a society that says ‘we’ instead of acting individually,” he said.
The Deputy President of the Union to be determined by votes of the Assembly members
Following Çavuşoğlu’s speech, voting began. In the Union Assembly, composed of 864 members, the election of the Deputy President could last up to four rounds:
In the first round, Vahap Seçer received 457 votes, and Ahmet Metin Genç received 252 votes.
As no candidate received 576 votes, which is two-thirds of the full membership, in the first round, the process moved to the second round, where 576 votes were again required.
In the third round, an absolute majority of 433 votes would be sufficient.
If an absolute majority is not reached in the third round, in the fourth and final round, the candidate with the highest number of votes will be elected Deputy President.