After 20 years in office, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced his party’s defeat in the Sunday municipal elections, calling the result a “turning point.”
A portion of the 85 million-person country’s results indicated significant gains for Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) at the expense of the Republican People’s Party (CHP).
With almost all poll boxes unlocked, opposition candidate Ekrem Imamoglu, the mayor of Istanbul, declared his reelection and said, “Tomorrow is a new spring day for our country,” to an ecstatic gathering of supporters.
Today is the expected day for the country’s election body to disclose the final results.
Erdogan, 70, had started a full-scale personal campaign to retake Istanbul, the hub of the economy, where he had served as mayor. However, widespread inflation and a financial crisis have eroded public trust in the ruling party.
To celebrate the outcome, large people gathered in the square outside the opposition party’s Istanbul city headquarters, blazing candles and waving Turkish flags.
Following his vote, Imamoglu was greeted with cheers and cries of “Everything will be fine,” which was his catchphrase when he first seized control of the city hall from the AKP in 2019.
It is becoming more widely accepted that the 52-year-old will be Erdogan’s AKP’s greatest opponent in the 2028 presidential race.
In front of sizable gatherings of supporters, Ankara’s mayor, Mansur Yavas, a member of the CHP, declared, “The elections are over, we will continue to serve Ankara,” after declaring victory.
He went on, “Those who have been disregarded have sent a very clear message to those in power in this country.”
With 46.4 percent of ballot boxes unsealed, Yavas had 58.6 percent of the vote compared to 33.5 percent for his AKP opponent.
In Antalya, in the south, and in Izmir, the third-largest city in Turkey, supporters of the opposition rejoiced over their victories.
The data suggested that some towns that were AKP strongholds were vulnerable to loss. After the results were announced, CHP leader Ozgur Ozel declared, “Voters have chosen to change the face of Turkiye.”
“They seek to usher in a new era of politics in our nation.”
“Honor the ruling.”
Erdogan gave a speech to supporters at his party’s headquarters acknowledging the electoral defeat.
He said to the quiet throng, “Unfortunately, we have not obtained the results that we wanted.”
“Of course, we will respect the national choice. We won’t act in a stubborn manner, go against the wishes of the country, or cast doubt on its authority,” he continued.
Erdogan took office in 2014 and was re-elected in May of the previous year.
While he was beginning his effort to recapture the city, he referred to Istanbul as the national “treasure.”
Even though he controlled the campaign, his personal influence was insufficient to allay public worries about the state of the nation’s economy.
While casting her ballot, Guler Kaya, 43, a native of Istanbul, remarked, “Everyone is worried about the day-to-day.”
“The middle class is being consumed by the crisis. All of our habits have to be changed,” she remarked. “It will get worse if Erdogan wins.”
Despite the fact that opposition groups had split up before the election, pundits anticipated a turbulent political future for the AKP and its allies.
Sabanci University professor Berk Esen declared that the CHP had achieved “the biggest election defeat of Erdogan’s career.”
Even in conservative areas, government candidates have failed due to unequal competition. “These are the best results for the CHP since the elections of 1977,” Esen posted on social media.
Discontent in the southeast
Erdogan famously said, “Whoever wins Istanbul, wins Turkiye,” according to Konda Research and Consultancy pollster Erman Bakirci.
The country was hurting from a 67 percent inflation rate and had witnessed the lira’s decline from 19 to a dollar to 32 to a dollar in only one year when the election was held.
Twelve people were injured and one person died in clashes in the southeast of Turkiye, where the Kurdish majority lives, an official told AFP.
Pro-Kurdish DEM party claimed to have found anomalies “in almost all the Kurdish provinces,” citing dubious proxy voting cases in particular. The attorneys’ association MLSA claims that a polling place in the area turned away French observers.
In all 81 of Turkiye’s provinces, almost 61 million people could cast ballots for mayors, provincial council members, and other local politicians.
