Foreign
THE opposition was inching ahead in Istanbul after Turkey’s municipal elections, Sadi Guven, the Election Chief said on Monday, after a bruising night of setbacks for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling party.
Counting was still under way in Turkey’s cultural and business centre, which has been ruled by an Islamic conservative camp since 1994, the year Erdogan was elected the city’s mayor.
According to unofficial results, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) had lost the capital, Ankara, also held by Islamic conservatives since 1994.
The head of the Supreme Election Council (YSK), Guven, said that 31,102 of 31,186 ballot boxes have been accounted for in Istanbul, adding that “84 ballot boxes are still to be counted due to objections,’’ referring to complaints about the voting process.
Guven said that Ekrem Imamoglu, the opposition candidate for the Republican People’s Party (CHP) had 4,159,650 of votes while the AKP’s Binali Yildirim, former premier and ex-parliament speaker, had 4,131,761 votes.
Late Sunday, Yildirim was quick to declare himself the winner, with Imamoglu insisting that “we won’t allow manipulation.’’
Erdogan, who wasn’t on the ballot, claimed overall victory for his Islamic-conservative AKP in Sunday’s fiercely contested municipal elections.
But preliminary results from state news agency Anadolu showed setbacks for the AKP in industrial centres such as the South-Eastern industrial city of Adana and the Mediterranean tourism hub of Antalya amidst an economic recession.
Analysts see the elections as a referendum on Erdogan’s policies since parliamentary and presidential polls in June, when he promised a “new Turkey’’ as he took over as the country’s first executive president with vastly expanded powers. (dpa/NAN)
– Apr. 1, 2019 @ 11:35 GMT |
Tags: Turkey election chief says opposition leading in Istanbul
