İstanbul Mayor Kadir Topbaş was elected as the president of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG) for the 2010-2013 term at a meeting on Saturday in Mexico City.
Hundreds of local administrations from 136 countries out of 192 UN states are members of the UCLG. The presidential elections took place as part of the third World Congress held in Mexico City. Topbaş was the only candidate as Lisbon Mayor Antonio Costa withdrew from the elections.
“There will be a stronger UCLG which will make its presence felt more seriously and which will meet expectations. We will do it together,” Topbaş said after he was elected president. While noting that the organization will gather at least once every two months during his term in office, Topbaş said each co-president will be responsible for one of the main themes of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG).
“Another target is to have an office at the UN,” Topbaş said and noted that they will arrange a meeting with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to present their objectives.
Topbaş further said they plan to establish a system to pave the way for the sister cities protocols to work more actively. “Our foundation phase is over; now it’s high time to use our power. We want all local administrations to unite under the roof of the UCLG because we are really strong; we don’t do politics but we represent the public,” Topbaş said.
During the congress Lisbon Mayor Costa, who withdrew his candidacy for the UCLG presidency, said he wanted to work with Topbaş, whom he said was “a very prestigious mayor.”
Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoë, who chaired the UCLG for six years, was given the title of honorary president. The next UCLG World Congress is set to take place in the Moroccan city of Rabat in March 2011. In the meantime, Bursa Mayor Recep Altepe and the mayor of the city’s Nilüfer district, Mustafa Bozbey, joined the UCLG World Council, according to a written statement released by the Nilüfer Municipality yesterday.