Forty mayors from the Republican People’s Party have been arrested since the local elections of 31 March 2024, the news channel İlke TV reported on 7 October. The figure includes mayors since released and is not the number currently in prison.

At those elections the CHP finished first nationally and won 14 of Türkiye’s 30 metropolitan municipalities.

The arrests began on 30 October 2024 with Ahmet Özer, mayor of İstanbul’s Esenyurt district, held on allegations of PKK/KCK membership. He was removed from office and a government-appointed trustee took over the municipality. He was released on 14 July 2025 after about eight and a half months and sentenced in January 2026 to six years and three months.

They widened on 19 March 2025 with the arrest of İstanbul’s mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, together with Şişli’s Resul Emrah Şahan and Beylikdüzü’s Mehmet Murat Çalık. Şişli was also placed under a trustee.

Since then the district mayors of Beşiktaş, Beykoz, Büyükçekmece, Avcılar, Gaziosmanpaşa, Bayrampaşa, Beyoğlu, Şile, Ataşehir, Silivri, Adalar and Üsküdar have been arrested, along with mayors in Antalya, Adana, Bursa, Bolu, Uşak, Düzce, Kocaeli, İzmir, Ankara and Mersin. Antalya’s Muhittin Böcek has been in pre-trial detention since 5 July 2025. Adana’s Zeydan Karalar was released in March 2026 but has not been reinstated. Beykoz’s Alaattin Köseler was released on 5 September 2025 and re-arrested the following day on the prosecution’s objection.

The most recent arrests came on 5 and 6 October 2026: Ataşehir’s acting mayor Murat Güneş, himself elected after the arrest of the district’s elected mayor in April; and the mayors of Mersin Metropolitan, Yenişehir, Mezitli and Eyüpsultan. All were suspended from office.

The charges differ from file to file and include bribery, extortion, bid-rigging, abuse of office, forming or belonging to a criminal organisation, fraud against the public purse, and terrorism-related offences. Not every allegation has produced a conviction, and an order for pre-trial detention does not establish guilt.

Arrests are one of three mechanisms by which the composition of local government has changed since the election.

The second is the appointment of trustees, which has occurred in Esenyurt and Şişli, and the selection of replacements by municipal councils elsewhere. In Bayrampaşa, a CHP councillor was elected acting mayor; the AKP objected, a court annulled the election, and the AKP candidate won the re-run on 26 October 2025. Second ballots in Üsküdar and Adalar also went to AKP candidates. In Menderes the opposition vote divided between the CHP, the New Party and an independent, and the AKP candidate won. AKP candidates have also taken Bursa Metropolitan Municipality and the Akçakoca and Gaziosmanpaşa districts.

The third is defection. On 7 October the metropolitan mayor of İzmir, Cemil Tugay, joined the AKP, giving the governing party the mayoralty of Türkiye’s third city. Aydın’s Özlem Çerçioğlu had moved earlier, and Afyonkarahisar’s Burcu Köksal in May. Following a court ruling of 21 May that removed the CHP’s leadership, the metropolitan mayors of Tekirdağ, Manisa, Eskişehir and Denizli left for the newly formed New Party; Manisa’s Besim Dutlulu took fourteen district mayors with him. Ankara’s Mansur Yavaş resigned from the CHP and sits as an independent.

In İstanbul’s city council, the CHP’s representation has fallen from 187 seats after the 2024 elections to 154, while the bloc aligned with the governing party has risen from 130 to 142.

The CHP says the judiciary is being used to undermine municipalities it controls and to overturn the results of the local elections. The government says the courts act independently and that criminal allegations must be investigated whoever is involved.

What is not in dispute is the arithmetic. Two and a half years after a vote the opposition won, a substantial part of what it won is administered by someone else.