PodcastMayors still waiting to be invited to presidency to be consulted on local administration law
A meeting between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and 30 metropolitan mayors on Sept. 11 had called for the establishment of an advisory commission set to provide advises on drafting the new local administration law in the country. But, although three months have passed since the meting, no action has been taken regarding this commission, whose members consist of 10 metropolitan mayors.
NergisDemirkaya
Members of an advisory commission, the establishment of which had been decided during a meeting between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and 30 metropolitan mayors on Sept. 11, have not still received an invitation from the presidency to start their works on drafting the new local administration law in the country.
Members of the advisory commission had been told during the Sept. 11-dated meeting that they would convene and start their works no later than one week after the meeting.
The commission includes 10 metropolitan mayors, including Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavaş and Eskişehir Mayor Yılmaz Büyükerşen -- all from the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP).
The ten members on the advisory committee have merely been asked to prepare a write-up presenting their suggestions. The mayors later sent them to the presidency.
The Sept. 11-dated meeting had also called for the creation of a WhatsApp group to facilitate communication between the 30 metropolitan mayors, but the relevant WhatsApp group was created one month after the meeting and the messages on the group could not go beyond “Best wishes (for the group).”
Meanwhile, CHP Vice Chair Seyit Torun phoned Vice President Fuat Oktay and asked if Erdoğan will continue to hold meetings with the mayors. Oktay said that the mayors would be invited back to the capital "as soon as possible," without giving a definite date. Torun told Oktay that municipalities were going through funding problems, adding: “There are issues that need to be tackled, solved urgently, as soon as possible.”
It is known that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization are both working on amendments to the local administration law, but neither of them has yet released a timetable to propose their respective bills.
In the meantime, the CHP itself is working on draft amendments to the relevant law. Once complete, the draft bill will be presented to the party council and later to party chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. It will be then passed onto the parliamentary speaker's office.