People's Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) Ankara Women's Spokesperson Nebahat Çalpan spoke to ANF about the local elections to be held on Sunday.

Çalpan said: "Our party, which entered a rapid self-criticism process after the 2023 general elections, decided to nominate its own candidate everywhere in the local elections. This was received positively and with hope by the public. While the local elections in Ankara became a race between two nationalist candidates, the candidacy of Gültan Kışanak and Öztürk Türkdoğan became an alternative created by our insistence on the 3rd way. As you know, Gültan Kışanak is trying to conduct an election campaign from prison. We outside are trying to be the voice and color of President Gültan, despite the difficult and limited communication in the conditions where even taking pictures is not allowed for the election."

Stating that they started the "purple color of politics" campaign, inspired by the title of Gültan Kışanak's book "The purple color of Kurdish politics", Çalpan continued as follows: "We carry out our work with the power we get from women's solidarity with the campaign group, which includes women from all walks of life. The candidacy of Gültan, based on the democratic, ecological and participatory understanding of local government, is a development that paves the way for women from all walks of life to support it."

The hope of peace politics

Çalpan said: "Gültan's claim and insistence on building bridges of social peace gave hope to those who do not want war, conflict and poverty, and want to conduct politics on a peaceful and democratic basis. That's why we observe that the election work we carry out with women's solidarity is very strong and enthusiastic in its reflection on the streets."

Çalpan added: “We are carrying out the same work as we do in every election. We took care to make the announcement in every election program we went to with our observers and ballot box committee members, during public meetings, parks and market visits."