Turkey: Opposition claims win in Ankara
Turkey’s main opposition party claims to have won Ankara in local elections, defeating President Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party in the capital for the first time; Defeat in Ankara and a possible loss in Istanbul, would be a greater blow for Erdogan’s party.
In a major setback for President Erdogan, early results in Turkey showed his AK Party losing Ankara and Izmir to the opposition in local elections.
While Istanbul remains disputed, Erdogan said his party may have lost Turkey’s largest city too.
Nationwide, AKP remains the largest party with 45 per cent of the vote, according to partial results released by Anadolu state news agency with 91 per cent of ballot boxes opened.
After 92 per cent of ballot boxes were opened, Republican People’s Party (CHP) candidate Mansur Yavas had 50.62 per cent in Ankara, giving him a 3.4 percentage points lead over his rival from the ruling AK Party.
In Istanbul, AKP candidate and former prime minister Binali Yildirim had a narrowing lead of 0.14 percentage point over the main opposition party after 98 per cent of the ballots were opened.
Both the AKP and opposition candidates were claiming victory in Istanbul late on Sunday evening.
Reacting to the release of early results, President Erdogan said his party was leading by far across Turkey and that losing some cities was ‘the necessity of democracies’. President also said the next elections would be held in June 2023 and that Turkey would carefully implement a “strong economic programme” without compromising on free market rules.
