Parliament passes municipalities bill

After intense debate, Parliament yesterday passed a bill proposing sweeping changes to Turkish municipalities. Under the new Municipalities Law, 862 district municipalities whose populations have fallen below 2,000 and 283 first stage municipalities would lose municipality status, and 43 villages with populations over 2,000 would be upgraded to town districts. During the debate, ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputies denied the bill was a meant to increase the party's electoral strength, adding that the opposition parties should thank the government for enacting key reforms at considerable political risk. Prime Minister Erdogan also closely followed the debates and attended them for two days.