Turks compete for council se

Nesil Cazımoğlu

Nazım Çelebi

Two Turkish speakers will compete for a vacant Enfield council seat on the same day as the general election.

Britain’s two big political parties – Labour and the Conservatives – have fielded Nesil Cazimoğlu and Nazım Çelebi for the Jubilee ward seat that was vacated when Councillor Rohini Simbodyal stepped down.

Both candidates have family connections to local politics in Enfield Council: Miss Cazimoğlu’s mother, Alev, is already a serving Labour councillor in Jubilee, while Mr Çelebi’s wife Ersin was elected as a Conservative councillor for nearby Bush Hill Park last year.

Mr Çelebi is long-standing community businessman. He was previously the president of the Turkish Cypriot Football Federation and remains a director on the organisation’s board today.

Miss Cazimoğlu, meanwhile, is a long-time member of the Labour Party, having joined at the age of 14. She was previously a cabinet support officer at Haringey Council and was involved in a campaign against the coalition government’s decision to increase tuition fees to £9000.

The other candidates running in the by-election, which takes place on 7 May, are: Sharon Downer (UKIP), Benjamin Charles Maydon (Green) and Matt J McLaren (Liberal Democrat).