The trustees appointed by the Turkish regime over the Kurdish provinces were voted out of office by the people of Kurdistan, as were several pro-regime mayors who were brought to power in the previous local elections, often through electoral fraud. Now the co-mayors of the DEM party are taking office. Little by little, reports are arriving of the devastation that the trustees have caused in the Kurdish cities.

In Halfeti (Xelfetî) in the province of Urfa (Riha), the DEM party wom seven districts. The AKP tried to contest the results in Curnê Reş and Halfeti. However, the decision for new elections was overturned by the highest court for Halfeti and the DEM party was able to take office.

After this decision was made, the trustee appears to have left the town hall in the middle of the night, taking a number of things from the inventory. In a video published on X by DEM Party MP Ömer Öcalan, it was documented that many items were carried into a truck parked at the gate of the municipality.

The elected DEM Party co-mayors Saniye Bayram and Mehmet Karayılan went to the municipality accompanied by a large crowd and discovered that even the camera system had been stolen.

Bayram told ANF that the AKP's decision to hold new elections in Halfeti was reversed because the vote difference was too large. According to official counts, the DEM party was 906 votes (39.45 percent) ahead of the AKP candidate (34.97 percent). This result is particularly significant given the massive electoral fraud committed by the AKP. In the last local elections in 2019, the AKP was almost 3,000 votes (total 51.85 percent) ahead of the HDP (37.45 percent).

Bayram said: "On election day, the trustee drove from village to village in the back seat of his car with stamped ballot papers he had received from unknown sources. In many places, tons of such ballot papers were thrown into the ballot boxes. The remaining ballot papers were burned, and it was claimed that we had done it. When they couldn't beat us at the ballot box this time, they resorted to other tricks. They lodged an objection with the district election board. Since there was no concrete evidence, the district election board rejected their objections. This time they appealed to the state election board, which decided to hold the election again. This time we brought the decision to the High Election Committee (YSK). The YSK overturned the decision to repeat the elections and gave us our mandate. At the end of this process, justice was served."

The population, which resolutely supported the DEM party, contributed to the reversal of the decision for new elections. Bayram said: "Our people supported this election with great enthusiasm. No one left the polling stations, even after the polls closed. People were active until the last moment and their voices did not go unattended. We fought together with our people from the election to receiving the mandates."

"We found a looted city administration"

Saniye Bayram reported on the dire state of the city administration: "According to the results of our initial investigations, the debt of Halfeti Municipality amounts to almost 400 million Turkish lira. We will inform our citizens about the economic situation of our community as part of a detailed review. During the first investigations we carried out in our community, we found that with almost two hundred employees in the city administration, there are far more staff than necessary. Personnel costs make up the majority of our community's monthly expenses. We will take the necessary measures. During our first visit we also noticed that the cameras in both the town hall and the vehicle garage had been removed and taken away. We have reported this and lodged a complaint. We will share the result with our people. We will find out the general situation in the city administration after a detailed investigation and share it with the public. We will now quickly assess the situation, take the necessary measures and take the necessary steps to adjust it. We will tailor our work to the needs of the people here. We will work for our people in a fair, equal, transparent and democratic community."