The Justice and Development Party (AK Party) saw 700 of its members resign over two days in protest of the party's decision to not re-nominate Mehmet Gecitli for mayor of Cungus, a town in Diyarbakir province, Today's Zaman reported.
Speaking to reporters, Gecitli said 400 people resigned from the AK Party on Tuesday and 300 more on Wednesday. "The resignations will reach 1,200 once our friends in the villages resign as well," Gecitli said.
On Jan. 20, all of the members of the (AK Party) Adana provincial administration board resigned from their posts in a protest initiated by the board's chairman, Ziyaeddin Yagcı, who submitted his resignation following the unveiling of mayoral candidates in the province of Adana.
Yagcı stepped down after the candidates were announced at the AK Party headquarters on the grounds that the provincial administration was not consulted in determining the candidates. His resignation was followed by the resignations of the rest of the board.
Meanwhile, new AK Party Kahramanmarash provincial branch head Metin Dogan, who was recently assigned to replace Fatih Mehmet Erkoc, who resigned from his post to run for mayor in the upcoming local elections, announced that some of the Kahramanmarash board's administrative members had submitted their resignations along with Erkoc.