Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party has challenged the results of local elections in Istanbul, Turkey‘s commercial hub, where preliminary results show a razor-thin victory for the main opposition candidate.
Nationwide, the AK Party and its coalition partner won more than 50 percent of votes in Sunday’s election, but the party lost the capital Ankara to the opposition and is trailing in the tight race for Istanbul.
Bayram Senocak, the ruling party’s top official in Istanbul, said on Tuesday he has submitted objections to results in all 39 of the city’s districts, seeking a recount to fix alleged irregularities and a reassessment of invalid votes.
“As of 15:00 today, we have submitted all our appeals to the district electoral councils,” he said.
Waving ballot records in which he said the vote count irregularities could be seen, Senocak added: “Whichever officials did this and for whatever reason, we will closely follow the necessary legal steps.”
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Turkey election board: Erdogan’s AK Party behind in Istanbul race (2:21) |
The AK Party had found an “excessive” difference between votes cast at ballot stations for their candidate and the data sent to electoral authorities, he said.
The AK Party said it had also submitted objections to results in all 25 districts in Ankara.
The electoral board has two days to decide whether the claims of irregularities have merit.
‘Shame’
The body on Monday announced Ekrem Imamoglu, the mayoral candidate of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) in Istanbul, was ahead of his AK Party rival, ex-Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, by about 28,000 votes. Istanbul has an estimated total population of 15 million.
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| Ekrem Imamoglu, main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) candidate for mayor of Istanbul, visits Anitkabir, the mausoleum of modern Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, as he is flanked by his family members and supporters in Ankara, Turkey [Umit Bektas/Reuters] |
Mansur Yavas, the CHP’s newly elected mayor in Ankara, received 50.9 percent of votes in Sunday’s vote, defeating his AK Party rival and former minister Mehmet Ozhaseki by nearly 4 percentage points.
Meanwhile, Imamoglu said on Tuesday he was saddened by the AK Party failure to congratulate him after the election board count put him ahead.
“I’m watching Mr Binali Yildirim with regret. You were a minister of this nation, the parliament speaker and a prime minister,” Imamoglu said at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport before travelling to Ankara. “What could be more noble than congratulating?”
“The world is watching us with shame right now. We are ready to manage the big city of Istanbul. Let go and congratulate us with honour, so we can do our job,” he said.
Imamoglu later laid a wreath at the mausoleum of modern Turkey’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, in Ankara.
Large crowds gathered to greet him there, chanting “Mayor Ekrem”.
Defeats in Ankara and Istanbul would be a significant setback for Erdogan, who has dominated Turkish politics for more than 16 years.
A former mayor of Istanbul, Erdogan had campaigned relentlessly ahead of the vote, describing it as a “matter of survival” for the country.
The president’s political success has rested on years of stellar economic growth in Turkey, but a recession that has brought surging inflation and unemployment and a plunging lira currency have damaged his popularity.
