Turkish authorities detained a total of 89 people across the country for joining "unauthorized" demonstrations Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya wrote on Wednesday on X, formerly Twitter.
The protests in south-eastern Turkey and the Aegean province of Izmir followed an election authority decision to prevent a newly elected mayor from the pro-Kurdish People's Equality and Democracy Party (DEM) in the south-eastern city of Van from taking his post.
DEM's Abdullah Zeydan was denied his mayoral mandate even though he was elected mayor in Sunday's local elections with around 55% of the vote, the party said. It has legally challenged the decision.
The mayoral post instead is to be given to a candidate from Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), who came in second at around 27%.
The main opposition centre-left Republican People's Party (CHP), which came in first on Sunday in a historic blow to Erdoğan's AKP, condemned the decision and called for its reversal.
The local electoral authority contends that Zeydan has a criminal record and should not have stood for election, according to state news agency Anadolu.
Zeydan's party says he was informed about the decision only after the vote on Sunday.
The incident is reminiscent of mass dismissals of pro-Kurdish local politicians in 2019.
The pro-Kurdish party, then under the name HDP, had won 65 mayoral positions in the 2019 local vote, however the government removed a majority of them from office due to alleged terrorism ties.
