The municipal elections are a victory for the Turkish opposition. According to provisional official results after the counting of 79% of the ballots, opposition candidate Ekrem Imamoglu obtained 50.5% of the vote in Istanbul, compared to 40.7% for Murat Kurum, a former minister in the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“We are in first position with a lead of more than a million votes (…) We won the election”said Ekrem Imamoglu.
In Ankara, the political capital, Mansur Yavas, another CHP heavyweight, was also heading towards a comfortable re-election, with 56.3% of the votes after counting 12.4% of the ballot boxes. “The elections are over, we will continue to serve Ankara and (its) six million inhabitants without discrimination”he rejoiced.
A defeat for Recep Tayyip Erdogan
During these municipal elections, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hoped to see his party recover these two cities that it had lost in 2019.
The CHP is also in the lead in several major Turkish cities such as Izmir, Bursa, Antalya and Adana, according to provisional results published by the state news agency Anadolu.
At the national level, the CHP is in the lead with 39% of the votes, according to provisional results, a first in 35 years. “The voters chose to change the face of Turkey” after 22 years of domination by the Islamo-conservative AKP party, said the leader of the main Turkish opposition party (CHP, social-democrat) on the evening of the municipal elections. “They wanted to open the door to a new political climate in our country”added Ozgur Ozel
The vote was marked by violence across the country, leaving at least three dead.