Turkey: Opposition declare victory declares victory in local polls
The main opposition party of Turkey, the Republican People’s Party is leading the race for the Mayor in Istanbul which is the largest city and economic centre of the country. Ekrem Imamoglu, from the CHP, has overtaken the nominee of the President Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party leading with a total of 4,159,650 votes. President Erdogan’s candidate Binali Yildirim has only 4,131, 761 votes.
The Chairman of the High Election Board, Sadi Guven stated that “So far results coming from 31,102 ballot boxes have been defined in our system, count of 84 ballot box results has not been completed because of objections”.
As per the state-run Anadolu Agency, Imamoglu is leading in Istanbul race for the Mayor with 48.8 per cent of the votes while Yildrim has only 48.5 per cent votes with 100 per cent of the votes counted. With 100 per cent of the votes counted, CHP has won the election with a narrow margin. CHP said,” We have won the election in Istanbul with around 28,000 votes. For legal reasons, the board is waiting for the objection period to be over to declare our win. There have been complaints about certain ballot boxes. Legally, the party objecting should show a valid reason in doing so over each particular ballot box. Therefore, the number of boxes votes will be recounted in is limited. The government should respect the results”.
The defeat of the main ruling party in Istanbul will mean that the support base for the President is receding as the three largest provinces of Turkey will then have mayors from the main opposition party as per the preliminary results. Results have been similar in other regions as well. Even in Ankara, the CHP candidate had given a lead to the AK candidate. While in Izmir, the Nation Alliance candidate, Mustafa Tune Soyer had taken the lead.
The polls are a clear reflection of the waning popularity of President Erdogan as the country is facing many problems like high inflation, rising unemployment and a major currency crisis. President Erdogan has been elected in 2018 as the first executive President of the country had declared that the next round of Presidential polls will take place in 2023 June.
