Will Syrian voters be kingmakers in Istanbul's mayoral election?
Though small in number, the votes of naturalized Syrians in Turkey could be decisive in the rerun election to select the new mayor of Istanbul, the city with the largest Syrian population outside Syria.
Syrians have traditionally not been troubled with the stress some voters have experienced surrounding elections, but that has changed for some of those displaced by their country's ongoing civil war.
Every Syrian recalls being told about the “pledge of allegiance” by members of the generation who lived under President Hafez al-Assad: They simply walked into a polling station and handed their ID card to a poll worker who would conveniently fill out the single-option ballot for them and drop it into the ballot box. Ever the young, modern reformer, Hafez's son, President Bashar al-Assad, introduced the multiple-choice ballot that resulted in his winning 98% of the vote.
In Syria, mayors are appointed by the president, but on June 23, some Syrians will for the first time vote to select their mayor, albeit not in Syria.
Eight years into the civil war that has torn Syria apart, one can no longer view the nearly 4 million Syrians who fled to neighboring Turkey as temporary “guests.” Thousands of them are now eligible to vote in Turkey and will do so in the controversial rerun election to select the mayor of Istanbul, the city with the largest Syrian population outside of Syria.
