The decision to assign the mayoral mandates to trustees is based on Article 45, paragraph 1 in conjunction with Article 46 of the Municipality Law. The following passage was added to this paragraph in 2016 during the state of emergency by Decree Law No. 674, in order to provide for a special procedure for the assignment of mayors, deputy mayors and council members.
- Where a mayor or a deputy mayor or a local council member “is suspended from duty or detained or banned from public service or his/her position is terminated due to the offences of aiding and abetting terrorism and terrorist organisations”, it will not be up to the municipal council to elect a mayor or deputy mayor, as normally required by the preceding text of that paragraph in case of a vacancy.
- According to the new text, in that specific case the mayor or deputy mayor or the council member shall be assigned by the authorities listed in Article 46 i.e. the Minister of the Interior (in the greater cities and provincial municipalities) or the provincial governor (in other municipalities). The only condition that the new text lays down is that the person to be assigned to one of these positions should be eligible for that position.