The 44-year-old Turan Hançerli from CHP has received around 52 percent of the votes in Avcılar, a big district on the European side of İstanbul, winning the poll by a 6 percent margin ahead of his rival from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Having lost his arms in an accident in 1993, Hançerli has a postgraduate degree in law and has worked for several associations of the disabled and handicapped people in Turkey while participating in many seminars and panels on the rights of the disabled people, and discrimination around the country. Hançerli has also voluntarily pursued many legal processes and lawsuits for disabled people.
In addition to Avcılar and many other districts, Hançerli’s CHP party has also won the Turkish capital city of Ankara in the contested local elections of March 31 against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling AKP while the controversy still continues in the metropolitan municipality of İstanbul where the CHP and AKP candidates have razor-margin votes.
