A vice chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) said the party’s losses in the municipal elections of March 31 were “a road accident” and said voters had realized their mistake.

Addressing a local meeting of AKP supporters in the central province of Kayseri on Saturday, Mustafa Elitaş said people were clearly “disturbed by the choices they made on March 31.”

Unaccustomed to defeat over the past two decades, the AKP was shaken when it lost several strongholds to its long-time rival, the Republican People’s Party (CHP). The party intends to turn things around with its leader, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has pledged to make changes to what he calls “the message our citizens conveyed during the elections.”

Elitaş highlighted the high public support for the AKP party since its establishment in 2002 and said the last municipal elections were a stumbling block. “But recent opinion polls and the results of our congresses show that the situation is changing. The citizens clearly believe they made a mistake,” he said.

Since the municipal elections, the AKP party has held a series of congresses across Turkey in anticipation of a planned national congress. Some party section presidents have already left their posts after electoral defeats, while the party seeks to further reshuffle its cadre ahead of the 2028 general elections.

The Sabah Daily News Bulletin

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