The impact of the candidates image on the voter's choice in local elections: A case of Izmir province

Local governments, which are the closest administrative units to the local people, are one of the basic building blocks of democratic values and democratic consciousness. For the local governments to realize their democratic existence, local elections are the most important tools. When compared with the general elections, local elections, especially the elections of the mayor, put forward differences in that in the latter the political candidate comes into prominence.Together with developing and changing World, politics as well has been transforming and gaining a new structure. The interaction and nested linkage of the processes of politics, marketing and communication rendered the notion of image more determinative in politics. Today, the concepts of party, partizanship and ideology which has been traditionally important concerning the voting behavior in the past, have been replaced by the concepts of leader, candidate and image. It is possible to argue that the political candidate and the image of the political candidate have a significant impact on the voting behavior, especially with an evaluation from the perspective of local elections. Accordingly, the image possessed by the political candidate and its impression from the voters perspective affects the voting behavior of the voters.It is impossible to determine general characteristics concerning the image of the political candidates. Basic reason for this is that, the criteria concerning the candidate?s image put forward differences in line with different locations, time, social order, political culture, ideology and current issues on the agenda. The purpose of this research is to determine the factors of the political candidate?s image effective on the voting behavior of the voters in İzmir and to reveal the perceptional differences between the image of the current mayor and the image of the mayor idealized by the voters. For this purpose, with this study, perceptions of the voters in İzmir with regards to the image of political candidate has been investigated and it has been tried to put forward the extent to which the effects of political candidate?s image have been determinative over the voting behavior. To this end, the political image of İzmir?s Mayor Mr. Aziz Kocaoğlu has been observed from the perspective of the voters, with reference to the local elections held in İzmir in 2009. In the research, the political image of the actual Mayor and the political image of the Mayor idealized by voters in İzmir have been evaluated on personal, ideological and thematic basis.