In Istanbul, main opposition candidate Ekrem Imamoglu has taken the lead against ruling party’s Binali Yildirim, according to the official data received from the Supreme Electoral Council (YSK), Demiroren News Agency (DHA) reported on Monday.
DHA said that 99.69 percent of the votes were counted by the YSK at around 9:10 am (local time) on Monday, with only 98 ballot boxes of votes remaining uncounted.
According to the news agency, the Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) Imamoglu has 4,157,505 votes, while ruling AK Party’s Yildirim has 4,130,190 votes.
Imamoglu holds 48.8 percent of the votes in Istanbul, while Yildirim remained at 48.48 percent, YSK data showed.
In the early hours of Monday, Imamoglu said that he had won by nearly 28,000 votes over AKP candidate and former Prime Minister Yildirim. But minutes later, AKP provincial head in Istanbul said that Yildirim had won by around 4,000 votes.
The initial results of Sunday’s elections marked the first major electoral setback for the ruling AKP since it first took power in 2002.
“Every gain and every loss is the will of our people and also a requirement of democracy that should be acknowledged,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in Istanbul before flying to Ankara. “We will admit we won the hearts of our people in areas that we won, and we will admit we were not successful enough in areas we lost,” he accepted.
Although he claimed victory overall in the elections, Erdogan has tasted defeat for the first time in his political career in mayoral races at the center of Turkey’s political power, Ankara and Istanbul, the country’s business centers.
“Please do not be heartbroken with this result,” Erdogan told supporters. He then challenged the opposition, saying, “We will see how they are going to administer.”
President Erdogan held up to eight campaign rallies a day across the country, taking center stage in the municipalities as he portrayed the vote as a matter of “national survival,” showing how seriously he regarded Sunday’s local elections.
Erdogan attaches great importance to Istanbul where he began his rise to power as its mayor in 1994. He stated at campaign rallies that “whoever wins Istanbul, wins Turkey.”
Turkey’s ruling party leads local elections, but faces defeat in big cities
The post Main opposition candidate takes the lead in Istanbul, according to official data – DHA appeared first on IPA NEWS.
from IPA NEWS https://ipa.news/2019/04/01/main-opposition-candidate-takes-the-lead-in-istanbul-according-to-official-data-dha/
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