many here think of kacmaz as their mayor.n turkey's local elections at the end of march, she stood for the pro-kurdish opposition party htp. gulcan kacmaz won with almost 54% of the vote, but her joy did not last long. >> i never thought that i would not receive my mandate. i was not expecting this because the election commission had approved me as a candidate. julia: two months after the vote, people here are still apappalled by the election boa's decision. >> i think this is very unfair. >> the decision is wrong. whoever wins the election should take office. >> by not giving her the mandate, they are stealing the will of the people. julia: the election commission says gulcan kacmaz should not be mayor because she was dismissed from her job by an emergency decree following the attempted coup in 2016. despite international criticism, the turkish government had tens of thousands of state employees detained, sacked, or suspended. gulcan kacmaz was a teacher at the time and was also on the list. she still does not know why. >> t