One person was killed, and twelve were injured, according to a first estimate, on Sunday March 31 in Turkey during incidents that occurred on the sidelines of the municipal elections in Diyarbakir, the main Kurdish city (South-East), announced the Ministry of health. “Clashes broke out between two groups during the elections on Sunday and left one dead and twelve injured,” an official also declared to Agence France-Presse (AFP), specifying that these incidents took place in a village located 30 kilometers from the provincial capital.
Turks began voting on Sunday to choose their mayors, a vote seen by some voters as a vote for or against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, determined to retake his “jewel”, Istanbul. In front of the polling stations, which opened in two stages, first in the East, then an hour later in the rest of the country, voters presented themselves without excessive enthusiasm, noted AFP correspondents.
Even if the head of state is not a candidate in these local elections, his shadow looms over the ballot boxes. At 70 years old, twenty-one of whom are in power, Mr. Erdogan has thrown all his stature as a statesman into the campaign, touring his country of 85 million inhabitants alongside the candidates of his Justice Party and development (AKP, Islamo-conservative).
He was particularly involved in the battle for Istanbul – of which he was mayor during the 1990s, before conquering power – to support his candidate, an uncharismatic former minister, Murat Kurum.
Offices will close at 5 p.m. local time (4 p.m. Paris time) in the West, and the first significant results are expected by the end of the day.
