Long-time Didim resident and businesswoman Kate Ashley-Norman, of The Didim Hypnotherapy Clinic, gives her post-election views on the impact in Didim.

ONCE again the start of the summer season is upon us. To be honest, this winter has been so dry and mild that it has gone in a flash.

Ten years ago, Altinkum was accused of being a ghost town during the winter months. These days, the pace of life is just as frantic for the full 12 months of the year – you just sweat slightly less during the winter!

Most significantly for Didim is that we are starting the new season with a new mayor – Deniz Atabay.

Anyone taking a look at the results will understand what a close shave it was for the CHP party to regain its hold on Didim. So close that, as I write, the AKP is continuing contest the results all the way to Ankara. However, it is not for this reason that I bring up the elections.

As someone who advocates individual responsibility and self efficacy, I wanted to touch on the subject of how the input of each and everyone of us can have an effect on the results of an election.

This week also sees the Indian general elections – and as the biggest democracy in the world, there are approximately 850 million people eligible to vote. In one interview I watched this week, a young guy was saying how he didn’t think he was going to vote, as his one single vote was not going to make any difference. 

I can understand that – the perspective is almost overwhelming. The seats may be geographically determined, but if a certain party holds firm in a certain area, how is one single vote – from a single individual’s perspective – going to change that.

But what if 1000 people who would all vote the same way thought the same, and didn’t vote as a result.  Then multiply that 1000 to cover similar situations in various towns, constituencies, across the country. 

I am no statistician, but I do believe that if every individual considered their vote to be an essential part of the democratic process, then results could take interesting twists and turns along the way.

When you come back down to an election the size of the Didim mayoral elections, you can see what a difference the numbers make. There was a difference of just 165 single votes between the two top parties.

Go back to 2009, when the CHP had a clear majority of 49.9%, the difference in voter numbers was 4945. Every single vote counted for something this year.

I was gutted as I realised later on polling day that my vote was actually null and void – something to do with putting the wrong papers in the wrong envelopes. I wonder how many others were considered null and void for the same reason, and what impact that may have had on the outcome.

Even more interesting was the total number of people who voted for the top four parties. In 2009, the vote count was 19958. This year it rose significantly to 34304.

Possibly this is because people understood how the expulsion of the CHP candidate and incumbent mayor Mumin Kamaci, a popular man among many in Didim, would seriously impact on the CHP’s previous floor-sweeping results.

Mr Kamaci took his many supporters across to the DSP, whose vote count rose from 253 in 2009, to 8068 this year. (Love him or hate him, he was extremely well supported) 

Everybody had a vested interest to make a difference to the line up of Didim’s council. Those in the AK party knew that this year they had the strongest chance yet. Those supporting Kamaci had to make sure the numbers pulled back to him. And the CHP had to work hard at repairing the damage they had self inflicted.

The next round of elections in 2019 will very interesting indeed! 

PS – For your interest, I have tabulated the two sets of results from 2009 and 2014, as published by the website www.haberler.com.