When the Turkish opposition party took the mayoralty of Istanbul in 2019, they handed the country’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan one of his biggest prestige defeats in his two decades at the helm of Turkish politics.
Despite enormous efforts from Erdogan, on Sunday evening he is likely to suffer another huge defeat in the weekend’s local elections.
Once again, the opposition party CHP is likely to win in the country’s largest city, Istanbul.
The CHP is the main opposition party to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AKP, which is in power in Turkey.
Victory in Ankara and Istanbul
At 22:37, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu of the CHP declares victory in the election.
According to Reuters, Imamoglu states that the CHP has won by more than one million votes, with 96 percent of the ballots counted.
It’s bad news for incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The local elections in Turkey are considered a kind of yardstick for Erdogan’s political support nationally.
According to Reuters, experts have stated that an AKP loss in this election could cost Erdogan much of his political control in Turkey, and be a sign of political changes in the future.
The CHP also leads the election results nationally at 10pm on Sunday evening, with 39 percent of the vote. According to Reuters, it is the first time in 35 years.
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In the country’s capital Ankara, CHP candidate Mansur Yavas has declared victory in the election. He has ruled the city since 2019, as long as his colleague in Istanbul.
The CHP is Turkey’s secular party, while Erdogan’s AKP is Islamist and conservative in orientation. When the CHP took power in the big cities of Istanbul and Ankara in 2019, it was a major defeat for Erdogan.
Very active
In Turkey, there is now a lot of attention around the local elections, especially in Istanbul. Erdogan himself has been very active in the election campaign, and according to The Guardian, his party has spent three times as much money as its rivals, in an attempt to take power in the big city.
Turkey has struggled with major economic problems and massive inflation, for which several voters in the big city blame Erdogan.
Erdogan’s highly active approach to the election campaign in Istanbul is angering CHP voters in the capital. To The Guardian, an unnamed voter says the following:
– The bastard increased inflation himself. That works, says the voter in Storavisa