Opposition In Turkey Defeats Erdogan's Party In Big Cities
- 1.04.2024, 8:04
Analysts call the election results "the biggest defeat" for the incumbent president.
The opposition party wins local elections in Turkey's major cities, such as Ankara and Istanbul.
This is evidenced by preliminary counting data of more than half of the votes, Reuters reports.
“On Sunday, the Turks punished President Tayyip Erdoğan and his party in national local elections, which confirmed that the opposition is a political force and strengthened the position of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu as the president's main future rival,” the statement reads.
After counting most of the votes, İmamoğlu leads by a margin of almost 10% in the race for the seat of the Mayor of Istanbul, Turkey's largest city, and his Republican People's Party retained Ankara and won nine other mayoral seats in the country's major cities.
Analysts point out that Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party, which has ruled Turkey for more than two decades, got less positive results than expected in the polls. This was due to rapid economic inflation, discontent of Islamist voters and the attractiveness of the opponent, in particular İmamoğlu.
Thousands of supporters gathered in the capital Ankara at night to hear the speech of Mayor Mansur Yavaş, who defeated his rival from the Republican Solidarity Party. This was another blow to Erdogan.
According to 79.77% of ballot boxes opened in Istanbul, İmamoğlu got 50.53% of the vote, compared to 40.73% obtained by Justice and Development Party candidate Murat Kurum, a former minister in Erdoğan's government.
Partial official results released by the state-run Anadolu Agency show that the Justice and Development Party, along with its main ally, have lost mayoral posts in 10 major cities, including Bursa and Balikesir in the industrial northwest.
According to these results, the Justice and Development Party still leads the country with almost 1% of the vote, which is the lowest figure in the last 35 years. Mert Arslanalp, associate professor of political science at Istanbul's Boğaziçi University, called it “Erdoğan's most serious electoral defeat” since he came to power in 2002.