News Center- The Women's Platform for Equality (Eşitlik için Kadın Platformu, EŞİK), an independent platform of more than 310 women’s and LGBTI+ organizations, has issued a written statement regarding the local elections scheduled to be held in Turkey on March 31, 2024. “According to the 2019 local election results, the female representation rate in local governments was only %3. However, one of the cornerstones of democracy is equal representation,” said the statement.

 ‘At least %50 of candidates must be women’

“At least %50 of the candidates to be nominated by the political parties in the local elections must be women in order to ensure equal representation and implement equalizing policies,” the statement underlined. “Therefore, we expect political parties to nominate women for mayors in the upcoming elections from provinces, districts and towns where they have a high chance of being elected. The zipper system must be implemented for the candidates to be nominated for municipal councils and provincial councils. Women should not be charged an application fee for candidacy applications, and practices such as ‘compulsory donations’ should be ended. Again, as a requirement of democracy, the candidate selection process should be conducted transparently.”

‘We think the qualifications of the candidates to be nominated extremely important’

In the statement, EŞİK said that they think that the qualifications of the candidates to be nominated are extremely important. “We insist that all candidates, men and women, must respect gender equality, be against all kinds of discrimination, and respect human, women, nature and animal rights.”

‘If women win, democracy and the country also win’

“We can achieve the democratization that we all long for, solving the problems of the people and implementing the principle of equal citizenship, starting from the local level. We defend our right to equal representation in local governments and everywhere! We say that if women win, democracy and the country also win!”