Three people died during municipal elections in Turkey. Istanbul is in the hands of the opposition

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) failed to win city halls in Istanbul and Ankara in local elections, according to preliminary results.

According to the Turkish press, the two largest cities are currently led by mayors who are representatives of the largest opposition group – People’s Republican Party (CHP). CHP candidates also lead in other large Turkish cities and metropolitan areas.

In Istanbul, unlike the previous elections in 2019, the party did not stand behind one candidate, the 50-year-old Ekrem Imamoglu, who five years ago took over the government of the party led by Istanbul after two decades. Imamoglu is an opposition member of the CHP formation. Another big opposition party, the pro-Kurdish DEM, which was formed last year from the People’s Democratic Party (HDP), has now fielded two of its own co-candidates, as is usual for pro-Kurdish parties.

Current mayor Imamoglu was challenged to a fight by the candidate of Erdogan’s AKP party and the former Minister of the Environment, Murat Kurum. For the hundredth time, in 87 percent of the precincts with 50 percent of the vote, the opposition Imamoglu declared himself the winner of the municipal elections. He leads his opponent by ten percentage points. We won the election. Thank you for your support, Imamoglu told his followers.

According to AFP, the current mayor of Ankara, Mansur Yava, also declared himself in favor of the election. Around 23:00 EST, he had a 25 percentage point lead over the AKP candidate for the hundredth quarter of the precinct. Those who were ironed sent a signal to those who rule, Yava said to his followers. CHP opposition candidates also lead in other major Turkish cities and metropolitan areas.

The CHP criticized the results of the municipal elections, saying that the voters sent the government a bad signal. They opened two new atmospheres in politics, said f parties. According to him, the voters rewarded the good work of the CHP leaders in the largest Turkish cities, which they led even without the support of the central government.

Clashes at polling stations were reported from several cities in Turkey, where people were killed, Reuters reported.

According to the electoral code, and with a few exceptions, the polling stations closed at 16:00 EST, i.e. according to the official full. And until 20:00 SEL, however, strict rules applied to the media, due to which they could only report on the elections based on official information.

Heavy damage took place in the village of Agalidere, about 30 kilometers from the city of Diyarbakir in the south-east of Turkey. According to AFP, they were also shot, and one bullet hit the newspaper’s car. According to the Bianet agency, they took the life of an election worker who was trying to settle a dispute between two groups. He gave two people land after clashes and shootings in the provinces of Bursa and Siirt.

CHP opposition candidates also lead in other major Turkish cities and metropolitan areas, including Ankara. In the capital, the current mayor, Mansur Yava, has more than 20 percentage points in roughly one-fifth of the Greater Nska district.

Except for the Kurds, who make up about 20 percent of the electorate in Turkey, there will be a general vote for the election results. This used to be high in the country, but now it seems that many voters have stayed at home – members of the opposition may be disillusioned by the fact that it is not possible to end the authoritarian regime of President Erdogan, who has ruled the country for 21 years – since March 2003 as prime minister and since 2014 as president – and who won the presidential election again last year. Some of the government’s voters could punish the government for aggravating their economic situation by their absence from the elections.

According to political analyst Mert Arslanalp, Sunday’s election result is one of the most difficult electoral defeats for Erdogan since entering global politics more than 20 years ago, according to Reuters. According to other observers, Imamoglu may have presidential ambitions.

Mr. Erdogan declared the results of the local elections a turning point and acknowledged that his party did not achieve the desired results, according to the AFP agency.

The polling station was written about in the course of the day as an indicator of the popularity of Erdogan and his AKP party. If the Kurum candidate wins it in Istanbul, it will signal Erdogan’s efforts to change the status quo, according to AP. They are striving for a new, more conservative version of the state, said Berk Esen from Istanbul University. If Imamoglu wins, it will help him unite the opposition and become a strong candidate for the next presidential election in 2028.

In particular, DEM will win the country in the south-east, where there is a large number of Kurdish women. It is not certain, however, whether he will eventually have his mayor there for the entire electoral period. In previous years, this Erdogan regime removed pro-Kurdish mayors from the list after being accused of links to the terrorist organization Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and replaced them with politicians from the ruling parties.

About 61.4 million voters could vote in the local elections in Turkey, of which a million young people could cast their vote first. According to the Ministry of the Interior, 600,000 police officers ensured the security of the elections.