Abroad According to Turkish state media
Opposition leads in local elections in Istanbul and Ankara – Erdogan speaks of “turning point”
As of: 12:29 a.m. | Reading time: 3 minutes
The metropolis of Istanbul – not an easy place for the AKP (archive photo)
Those: dpa/Emrah Gurel
The opposition is poised to win in important cities in the Turkish local elections. According to state media, candidates from the largest opposition party CHP are ahead in Ankara and Istanbul. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks of a “turning point” for his camp.
In the local elections in Turkey, there are signs that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamic conservative ruling party AKP has lost a lot of votes. The strongest opposition party, the CHP, won the most provinces nationwide, according to the state news agency Anadolu. Observers called the election result a historically bad result for the Islamic conservative party. The CHP was able to defend, among other things, the most populous metropolis of Istanbul and the capital Ankara against the AKP with a large lead, as Anadolu reported after 90 percent of the votes were counted.
In Istanbul in the evening, after 71 percent of the votes were counted, the ruling mayor Ekrem Imamoglu was leading with 50.4 percent of the votes, ahead of his Erdogan-backed rival Murat Kuram, who had 40.9 percent. Imamoglu declared himself the winner of the election that evening.
In Ankara, CHP Mayor Mansur Yavas also declared himself the winner given his lead. “The elections are over, we will continue to serve Ankara,” said the CHP politician. After 46.4 percent of the votes were counted, he got 58.6 percent, the AKP candidate got 33.5 percent.
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Around 61 million people in 81 provinces were called on Sunday to elect mayors, municipal councilors and other local politicians. The vote was seen as an important barometer of the mood and a pointer for the country’s political future. There were deadly clashes in the southeast in connection with the vote.
Erdogan’s main goal was to win back the metropolis of Istanbul with his AKP. Imamoglu wrested power in Istanbul from Erdogan’s ruling AKP in 2019, ending 25 years of rule by Islamic conservative parties. The AKP had the election canceled at the time. In the second round, Imamoglu won by an even larger margin – the success is considered the most serious setback in Erdogan’s political career to date. Erdogan’s political rise began in Istanbul when he was elected mayor in 1994.
“Unfortunately, we did not achieve the results we wanted,” the Turkish president told an unusually quiet crowd on Sunday at the headquarters of his Islamic conservative AKP in Ankara. He will “respect the nation’s decision.” After the partial results were published, he spoke of a “turning point” for his camp. “We will honestly assess the results of the elections in the organs of our party and courageously exercise self-criticism,” Erdogan told his supporters.
The election campaign was considered unfair
One person was killed and eleven others were injured in the southeastern Turkish metropolis of Diyarbakir on Sunday after a dispute over the election of a community leader escalated, the state news agency Anadolu reported. A dispute over the election also escalated in Siirt province and one person was killed.
The election took place under difficult circumstances: the high inflation rate and the economic situation may have cost Erdogan’s party votes. The opposition, in turn, which ran as an alliance in the parliamentary and presidential elections in 2023, was considered divided and no longer ran as a unit.
The election campaign was considered unfair – a large part of the media in Turkey is under direct or indirect government control. No major voting irregularities were initially reported. The DEM party said officials in the southeastern Turkish province of Sanliurfa tried to vote at more than one ballot box. This was prevented and documented.
A delegation from the Council of Europe and the Left Party observed the elections on site. Thousands of volunteers were also supposed to ensure an orderly process. Shortly before the vote, the Oy ve Ötesi association said it had been able to recruit 30,000 people. That is more than in the local elections in 2019, but significantly less than in the parliamentary and presidential elections in 2023, for which 200,000 people registered as election workers.