2024 Istanbul mayoral election

2024 Istanbul mayoral election

31 March 2024
Turnout	79.28% ( 5.23 pp)
First party Second party   Candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu Murat Kurum Party CHP AK Party Alliance People Popular vote 4,432,691 3,431,587 Percentage 51.14% 39.59%
Mayor before election Ekrem İmamoğlu CHP Elected Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu CHP

2024 Istanbul mayoral election ballot

Istanbul, Turkey's largest city, held mayoral elections on 31 March 2024 as part of the 2024 Turkish local elections. Preliminary results suggested incumbent mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu was re-elected.

Background and candidates

Ekrem İmamoğlu of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP); İmamoğlu, when elected in 2019, became the first non-AKP mayor of Istanbul in 25 years. In August 2023, he announced his intention to stand again, despite legal challenges to his candidacy.

On 7 January, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President of Turkey and leader of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), announced its candidate, Murat Kurum.

Başak Demirtaş, the wife of imprisoned pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) leader Selahattin Demirtaş initially announced her intention to run but later withdrew. On 9 February, the HDP's successor, the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM) named Murat Çepni and Meral Danış Beştaş as its joint mayoral candidates, with the final decision on who would lead to be left in the event of them winning the election.

Campaigning

Both İmamoğlu and Kurum have pledged to implement infrastructure projects to reinforce buildings against earthquakes and to ease chronic traffic congestion in the city.

Incidents

On 10 February, gunmen opened fire at a campaign event in the Küçükçekmece district municipality for AKP mayoral candidate Aziz Yeniay, critically injuring one person. Seventeen people were arrested in connection with the attack.

Results

Metropolitan municipality mayoral election

Overall results

Candidate		Party	Votes	%
	Ekrem İmamoğlu	Republican People's Party	4,432,691	51.14
	Murat Kurum	Justice and Development Party	3,431,587	39.59
	Mehmet Altınöz	New Welfare Party	226,438	2.61
	Azmi Karamahmutoğlu	Victory Party	184,030	2.12
	Meral Danış Beştaş	DEM Party	183,805	2.12
	Mehmet Satuk Buğra Kavuncu	Good Party	54,619	0.63
	Birol Aydın	Felicity Party	48,893	0.56
	Emre Berk Hacıgüzeller	Homeland Party	14,919	0.17
	Burhanettin Aktürk	New Turkey Party	14,265	0.16
	İdris Şahin	Democracy and Progress Party	11,409	0.13
	Mustafa Aytaş	Rights and Freedoms Party	9,563	0.11
	Cihan Erdoğanyılmaz	Independent Turkey Party	9,003	0.10
	Orhan Gökdemir	Communist Party of Turkey	7,471	0.09
	Nesim Pakır	Democratic Left Party	5,480	0.06
	İbrahim Okan Özkan	Patriotic Party	4,907	0.06
	Vedat Taylan Yıldız	Independent	4,747	0.05
	Umut Çınar	Motherland Party	3,015	0.03
	Ziya İncedere	Communist Movement of Turkey	2,383	0.03
	Osman Tekin	Anatolian Unity Party	2,229	0.03
	Hasan Hüsnü Güler	Nation Party	2,024	0.02
	Muharrem Mutlu	Justice Unity Party	1,831	0.02
	Merve Karataş	Independent	1,652	0.02
	Ishak Akbay	Independent	1,263	0.01
	Hüseyin Işık	National Path Party	1,137	0.01
	Hülya Kavuzlu Karaman	Independent	1,091	0.01
	Adem Bayraktar	Independent	969	0.01
	Vedat Öztürk	Independent	888	0.01
	Galip Menteşe	Independent	781	0.01
	Osman Çelik	Hearth Party	699	0.01
	Memet Ali Aydoğmuş	Independent	333	0.00
	Fatma Ragibe Kanıkuru Loğoğlu	Independent	278	0.00
	Abdullah Arli	Independent	260	0.00
	Sena Elest Akıncı	Independent	244	0.00
	Orhan Çebi	Independent	232	0.00
	Habip Aksu	Independent	204	0.00
	Bilen Akpınar	Independent	192	0.00
	Yaşar Polar	Independent	186	0.00
	Burak Emre Çetin	Independent	185	0.00
	Cemal Tarancı	Independent	181	0.00
	Güven Akıcı	Independent	179	0.00
	Polat Erdoğan	Independent	160	0.00
	Atakan Bozyayla	Independent	154	0.00
	Yüksel Özden	Independent	152	0.00
	Ömer Karvan	Independent	148	0.00
	Ahmet Soytürk	Independent	140	0.00
	Hüseyin Durmaz	Independent	136	0.00
	Mirhat Tekin Brusk	Independent	127	0.00
	Uğur Etlik	Independent	119	0.00
	Ahmet Birikmen	Independent	111	0.00
Total			8,667,510	100.00
Valid votes			8,667,510	96.63
Invalid/blank votes			302,702	3.37
Total votes			8,970,212	100.00
Registered voters/turnout			11,314,534	79.28

District elections

Full list

Note: AK Party is abbreviated "AKP" for visualisation purposes.

District Before Elected Adalar CHP CHP Arnavutköy AKP AKP Ataşehir CHP CHP Avcılar CHP CHP Bağcılar AKP AKP Bahçelievler AKP AKP Bakırköy CHP CHP Başakşehir AKP AKP Bayrampaşa AKP CHP Beşiktaş CHP CHP

District Before Elected Beykoz AKP CHP Beylikdüzü CHP CHP Beyoğlu AKP CHP Büyükçekmece CHP CHP Çatalca AKP CHP Çekmeköy AKP CHP Esenler AKP AKP Esenyurt CHP CHP Eyüpsultan AKP CHP Fatih AKP AKP

District Before Elected Gaziosmanpaşa AKP CHP Güngören AKP AKP Kadıköy CHP CHP Kâğıthane AKP AKP Kartal CHP CHP Küçükçekmece CHP CHP Maltepe CHP CHP Pendik AKP AKP Sancaktepe AKP CHP Sarıyer CHP CHP

District Before Elected Silivri MHP CHP Sultanbeyli AKP AKP Sultangazi AKP AKP Şile AKP CHP Şişli CHP CHP Tuzla AKP CHP Ümraniye AKP AKP Üsküdar AKP CHP Zeytinburnu AKP AKP

Reactions

President Erdoğan acknowledged the AKP’s defeat in Istanbul and other cities but said that it would mark "not an end for us but rather a turning point", adding that he would respect the result. Speaking to supporters in Saraçhane, İmamoğlu said that “our citizens' trust and faith in us has been rewarded".