Kocaeli Province is a province and metropolitan municipality of Turkey and one of only three not to have the same official name as its capital, İzmit, which is thus also sometimes called Kocaeli. Its area is 3,397 km2, and its population is 2,079,072 (2022). The province is the successor of the Ottoman-era Sanjak of Kocaeli. The largest towns in the province are İzmit and Gebze. The traffic code is 41. The province is located at the easternmost end of the Sea of Marmara around the Gulf of İzmit. Kocaeli is bordered by the province of Istanbul and the Marmara Sea to the west, the Black Sea to the north, the province of Sakarya to the east, the province of Bursa to the south and the province of Yalova to the southwest. The metropolitan area of Istanbul extends to the Kocaeli-Istanbul provincial border. The size and natural conditions of the Bay of İzmit allow for extensive port facilities, including the Gölcük Naval Base. The province is called the industrial capital of Turkey. Kocaeli has an airport named Cengiz Topel Naval Air Station which is used for military and civilian transport. Kocaeli has two universities: Kocaeli University and Gebze Technical University.
Elections in Turkey are held for six functions of government: presidential elections (national), parliamentary elections (national), municipality mayors (local), district mayors (local), provincial or municipal council members (local) and muhtars (local). Apart from elections, referendums are also held occasionally.
The Turkish local elections of 2004 were held throughout the eighty-one Provinces of Turkey on 28 March 2004 in order to elect both mayors and councillors to local government positions. All 16 metropolitan and 3,193 district municipalities were up for election, while 3,208 provincial and 34,477 municipal councillors were also elected. More than 50,000 neighbourhood presidents (muhtars) were also elected, though these do not have any political affiliations.
Local elections were held in Turkey on 30 March 2014, with some repeated on 1 June 2014. Metropolitan and district mayors as well as their municipal council members in cities, and muhtars and "elderly councils" in rural areas were elected. In light of the controversy around the elections, it was viewed as a referendum on the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. About 50 million people were eligible to vote.
The Istanbul mayoral elections of 2014 were held on 30 March 2014, as part of the local elections taking place throughout Turkey on the same day. The Metropolitan Mayor of Istanbul as well as the district mayors of the 39 districts of Istanbul were elected, along with municipal councillors for each district municipality. The metropolitan municipality race was one of the most high-profile and close watched elections in the country, with the Justice and Development Party candidate Kadir Topbaş being re-elected for a third consecutive term as mayor with 47.9% of the vote. Mustafa Sarıgül, the Republican People's Party (CHP) candidate, came second with 40% of the vote.
The İzmir mayoral elections of 2014 were held on 30 March 2014 as part of the nationwide local elections held on the same day. Mayors for the metropolitan municipality of İzmir and 30 other district municipalities throughout the İzmir Province were elected during the election, as well as municipal councillors for each district. The incumbent Aziz Kocaoğlu from the Republican People's Party (CHP) was re-elected as the metropolitan mayor of İzmir with 49.6% of the vote.
The electoral system of Turkey varies for general, presidential and local elections that take place in Turkey every five years. Turkey has been a multi-party democracy since 1950, with the first democratic election held on 14 May 1950 leading to the end of the single-party rule established in 1923. The current electoral system for electing Members of Parliament to the Grand National Assembly has a 7% election threshold.
Mayoral elections were held in the Turkish province of Ankara as part of nationwide local elections on 30 March 2014. A total of 26 mayors, one for each of the 25 districts of Ankara and one for the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality, were elected.
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.
Presidential elections were held in Turkey on 24 June 2018 as part of the 2018 general election, alongside parliamentary elections on the same day. They were the first presidential elections held after constitutional amendments were approved in a 2017 referendum.
Parliamentary elections were held in Turkey on 24 June 2018 as part of general elections, with presidential elections taking place on the same day. Originally scheduled for 27 October 2019, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called snap elections on 18 April after months of speculation. With the passage of a series of constitutional amendments in the 2017 referendum, the number of MPs will be increased from the previous 550 to 600. These representatives will be elected by the constituents of the 87 electoral districts of Turkey by party-list proportional representation.
Alinur Aktaş is a Turkish politician in the AKP and was the former Mayor of Bursa from 2017 to 2024.
The March 2019 Istanbul mayoral election took place on 31 March 2019, as part of the 2019 Turkish local elections. In addition to a mayor for the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, all 39 Istanbul districts elected their own individual mayors as well as district councillors.
Mayoral elections were held in the Turkish province of Ankara as part of nationwide local elections on 31 March 2019. A total of 26 mayors, one for each of the 25 districts of Ankara and one for the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality, were elected.
Ekrem İmamoğlu is a Turkish businessman, real estate developer, and social democratic politician serving as the 32nd Mayor of Istanbul. He was first elected with 4.1 million votes and won with a margin of 13 thousand votes against his AKP opponent in the March 2019 mayoral election as the joint Nation Alliance candidate of the Republican People's Party (CHP) and the Good Party, but served only from 17 April 2019 until 6 May 2019, when the election was annulled. He was then reelected in a renewed election on 23 June 2019 by an even larger margin of 800,000 votes. He ran for the office again in the 2024 Istanbul Mayoral elections in which he won by approximately a 50 percent majority, securing another 5 year term. He had previously been the Mayor of Beylikdüzü, a western district of Istanbul, between 2014 and 2019.
Mayoral elections were held in the Turkish province of İzmir as part of nationwide local elections on 31 March 2019. A total of 31 mayors, one for each of the 30 districts of İzmir and one for the İzmir Metropolitan Municipality, were elected.
The June 2019 Istanbul mayoral election was held on 23 June 2019. It was a repeat of the March 2019 mayoral election, which was annulled by the Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) on 6 May 2019. The original election had resulted in a narrow 0.2% margin of victory for opposition candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu, causing the governing Justice and Development Party to successfully petition for a by-election.
Local elections in Turkey took place throughout the country's 81 provinces on 31 March 2024. A total of 30 metropolitan and 1,363 district municipal mayors, alongside 1,282 provincial and 21,001 municipal councilors were elected, in addition to numerous local non-partisan positions such as neighborhood representatives (muhtars) and elderly people's councils.
Mayoral elections were held in the Turkish province of Ankara as part of nationwide local elections on 31 March 2024. A total of 26 mayors, one for each of the 25 districts of Ankara and one for the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality, were elected.
Local elections took place in İzmir, the third largest city of Turkey, on 31 March 2024, as part of nationwide local elections. A metropolitan municipal mayor was elected alongside mayors and councillors for the districts of İzmir.
