Partial results have Turkey‘s opposition candidate and incumbent mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, leading in local elections according to local media.
Broadcaster NTV on Sunday said that the country’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) had 49.6% with 20 % of ballots counted in the country’s largest city.
Opposition upbeat after early partial results
“Based on the data we have obtained, I can say that our citizens’ faith in us has been rewarded,” Imamoglu told reporters at the CHP’s Istanbul headquarters.
Murat Kurum, the candidate from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan‘s Justice and Development Party (AKP), which rules nationally, had 41.6%.
In Turkey’s capital Ankara, the CHP candidate was leading with 56.3% and the ruling party candidate had 36.3% with 12% of ballots counted.
The CHP appeared to be leading in 35 of Turkey’s 81 provinces, according to the preliminary results reported by state broadcaster TRT.
In 2019 The CHP won in Istanbul and Ankara with the ruling party demanding a rerun of the Istanbul vote, claiming there had been irregularities. The CHP also managed to win the rerun in the key battleground city.
Earlier this month Erdogan — who himself was mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to 1998 — said the municipal elections would be his last. He has been in power since 2003 when he was elected prime minister and then president in 2014.
In 2017, a constitutional change abolished the office of prime minister, giving Erdogan full executive power.
In May last year, Erdogan fell short of a majority of votes in the first round of presidential elections. In 2014 and 2018, he won outright and there was no runoff vote.
More to follow…
kb/rc (AFP,Reuters)
