Erdogan’s party could lose in big cities as Turks cast votes

Turks voted on Sunday in local elections that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has described as a matter of survival for Turkey.

Erdogan, who has dominated Turkish politics for more than 16 years thanks in part to strong economic growth, has become the country’s most popular, yet also most divisive, leader in modern history.

However, he could be dealt an electoral blow with polls indicating his governing AK Party (AKP) may lose control of the capital, Ankara, and Istanbul, the country’s largest city.

With the economy contracting following a currency crisis in 2018 in which the lira lost more than 30% of its value, some voters appeared ready to punish Erdogan, who has governed with an increasingly uncompromising stance.

“I was actually not going to vote today, but when I saw how much they [AKP] were flailing, I thought this might be time to land them a blow. Everyone is unhappy. Everyone is struggling,” said 47-year-old Hakan after voting in Ankara.

Just over 57-million people are eligible to vote.

Last week, as authorities again scrambled to shore up the lira, Erdogan blamed the country’s economic woes on attacks by the West, saying Turkey would overcome its troubles following the vote and adding he was “the boss” of the economy.

“The aim behind the increasing attacks towards our country ahead of the elections is to block the road of the big, strong Turkey,” Erdogan said at a rally in Istanbul on Saturday.

Sunday’s elections, in which Turks vote for mayors and other local officials across the country, are the first since Erdogan assumed sweeping presidential powers in 2018 and will be a reckoning for his government, which has come under fire for its economic policies and record on human rights.

The election was marred by violence in the southeast and Istanbul. Two members of the small Islamist Felicity Party, a polling station official and an election observer were shot dead in Malatya province, a party spokesperson said.

Media reports said one person had been detained.

After voting in Istanbul, Erdogan said that he was saddened by the incident and that it was being thoroughly investigated. About 553,000 police and security force members were on duty for the vote nationwide.

In Diyarbakir, two people were hurt, one of them critically, after being stabbed in a dispute between candidates, a hospital source said. Dozens of people were hurt in other electionrelated clashes in the southeast, media reported. One person was stabbed as 15 people clashed in a row between candidates in Istanbul’s Kadikoy district, a police source said.

Defeat in Ankara or Istanbul would end nearly 25 years of governance by Erdogan’s AKP or its predecessors in those cities and deal a symbolic blow to Turkey’s leader.

Ahead of the vote, the main opposition Republican People’s Party and Iyi (Good) Party formed an electoral alliance to rival that of the AKP and its Nationalist Movement Party partner.

The pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party is not fielding candidates for mayor in Istanbul or Ankara,

HIS GOVERNING AK PARTY MAY LOSE CONTROL OF THE CAPITAL, ANKARA, AND EVEN ISTANBUL, THE COUNTRY’S LARGEST CITY