10,000 PEOPLE VOTED TO HAVE A SAY ON ESKİŞEHİR'S FUTURE

The "Participatory Budget" initiative launched by the Eskişehir Metropolitan Municipality under the slogan "Unity with One Idea, Eskişehir" has attracted considerable interest from citizens. Approximately 10,000 Eskişehir residents voted in one week to determine projects that will shape the city's future.

The participatory budget initiative, "Unity with One Idea, Eskişehir," launched by the Metropolitan Municipality's Strategy Development Department, has attracted considerable interest across the city. Citizens submitted project proposals through the relevant website between June 16 and July 6. Following preliminary and technical evaluation, 50 projects were selected and put to a vote on July 28. Eskişehir residents participated in the voting by registering for the system at bifikirle.eskisehir.bel.tr over seven days. Each citizen can vote for a maximum of 10 projects, and a total of 10,000 votes were cast.

Metropolitan Mayor Ayşe Ünlüce expressed her excitement about the participatory budgeting initiative, saying, "We value our citizens having a voice in their own city. Therefore, as we enter the 2026 budget development process, we have collected project proposals with the slogan, 'Unite Eskişehir with One Idea.' We have also put the 50 valuable projects that passed the pre-selection process to a vote of the public, asking Eskişehir to make the decision together. As you know, we want 2026 to be the 'Year of Eskişehir.' This initiative will enable us to implement the short-term projects identified within the same year. Work on the long-term projects will also begin. Our goal is to complete all the identified projects. I believe this initiative is an exemplary initiative for Eskişehir in terms of transparency, participation, and strengthening local democracy, and I thank everyone who contributed."

The selected projects will be announced on August 29th on the bifikirle.eskisehir.bel.tr website.