Pathetic local election campaign

And this is nothing new. In countries where local and regional structures have failed to gain autonomy and proper life, as in Turkey, every election is held in an atmosphere of general elections. Problems of local areas are solved by the center only and of course only to a certain extent. Regional structures which function between the center and the local administrations, do not exist in Turkey. Region is feared like a bogeyman in a country obsessed with old French style unitary administration.

A hypercentralized structure cannot devise durable and sustainable solutions for local and regional issues in a sizeable country like Turkey. Today government’s outrageous charity economics is an outcome of this defective structure. And it’s turning into a mechanism of gaining supporters to the governing party is as well an outcome of the malfunctioning. When Justice Minister warns voters that if they vote for parties other than the ruling party their votes will be a waste he avows the absence of a modern local and regional systems.

Although the March 29 local elections are a test for Turkey and for the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, they have elicited a lack of decentralization, a notion from which Turkey is far away, once again.

Women have no place in municipalities

We have jumped from being 84th to 76th in the development index of the United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Report. However, we are still not in the "high development level" group. The most striking data the last update has revealed about Turkey is the Gender Empowerment Measure, or GEM, an indicator obtained by the number of female parliamentarians, high level officials, top-level company administrators. Turkey ranks as the 90th ahead of Egypt (91st), Saudi Arabia (92nd) and Yemen (93rd). In the GEM, Turkey has jumped up from being the third to the fourth at the bottom!

We are experiencing the very reason of this ranking actually. All and all, we have 18 mayoresses, only one of which is mayoress of a big city. A decade ago, the number of mayoresses was again 18. Among a total of 3,225 candidate mayors, the percentage of females stands at 0.668 percent. In female local administrators ratio, Turkey is ranked 6 from the bottom but at the end of the forthcoming elections it would reach the first rank, at the bottom evidently.

How women are exploited in an election campaign is self-evident. From headscarf to alms-giving, females are always kept passive. But when it comes to candidacy, female nominees stand no chance of being elected since no quota is applied.

For these elections the Association for Supporting and Training Female Candidates, or KADER, conducted a different campaign, after the one titled: "Is it necessary to have a moustache to be elected" during the July 22, 2007 general elections. The organization made Devlet Bahçeli of the Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, Deniz Baykal of the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan wear purple ties and say: "We all three agree: 50 percent female candidates in local elections!"

However, as the parties announced candidates, we saw that none applied the 50 percent female quota. The AKP nominated 18 females; MHP 34; CHP 45; Saadet Party 9; BBP 5; the pro-Kurdish Democratic People’s Party 33; Turkish Communist Party 37; Labor Party 3, Freedom and Solidarity Part 3; The Joint Platform 5; Democrat Party 37; and the Democratic Left Party 52.

Interestingly enough, although Erdoğan issued a directive to all AKP local offices that one of every four candidates should be a female, provinces acted on their own. In rural areas only males have influence and holding municipalities is compulsory for the continuation of their influence. This well-rooted leaning can never be changed by Erdoğan’s directive. No one should forget that the party’s local structures in Anatolia are composed of pragmatic fellows who make use of the AKP, not the other way around.

In conclusion, as the prime minister recommended to ladies, "give birth to three children" but please make sure that they are all boys!