Erdogan suffers election blow as key cities vote against his party
● Opposition claim the capital Ankara ● Ballots still being tallied for Istanbul
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared victory in municipal elections, but the opposition’s success in key cities dealt a significant blow to his party’s dominance.
According to unofficial results, the ruling party lost the capital Ankara and the head of Turkey’s electoral board said the opposition was also leading in Istanbul.
The leader, who has dominated Turkish politics for 16 years, declared victory despite the opposition gains.
Sunday’s local elections were widely seen as a gauge of support for Mr Erdogan as the nation of 81 million people faces a daunting economic recession with double-digit inflation, rising food prices and high unemployment.
It was also a first test for Mr Erdogan, who has been accused of increasingly authoritarian tendencies, since stepping last year into a new presidential role with widely expanded powers.
Behlul Ozkan, an associate professor at Marmara University, said Mr Erdogan’s loss of ground in Ankara and Istanbul indicated his socially conservative and construction-driven policies no longer resonated in the cosmopolitan cities. “Political Islam’s quarter-century old hegemony in Turkey’s two largest cities is over,” he said.
“The basic problem is that Erdogan is not able to get votes from middle-income earners who believe that the economy, education and urban administration are not run well.”
More than 57 million people were eligible to vote for the mayors of 30 major cities, 51 provincial capitals and 922 districts in Turkey. The election was marred by sporadic violence, with five dead and scores injured across Turkey.
Even with 99 per cent of the votes counted, ballot counts were still under way yesterday in the tight race for Istanbul,
Turkey’s largest city and commercial hub. Unofficial results reported by the state-run Anadolu news agency showed the opposition at 48.8 per cent support to the ruling party’s 48.5 per cent support. Ekrem Imamoglu, the opposition candidate in an alliance led by the secular Republican People’s Party (CHP), declared he had won Istanbul but his rival, former prime minister Binali Yildirim of the ruling party, said it was still too early to call.
Mr Yildirim accepted his rival was leading by some
25,000 votes, but said his party would file an objection, suggesting a recount of the 319,500 votes declared void in Istanbul.
“We know how to congratulate, but the process is still ongoing,” Mr Yildirim said. “Whoever receives the mandate from the electoral board will be mayor.”
Both the capital Ankara and Istanbul have been held by Mr Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, the AKP, and its Islamic-oriented predecessor for 25 years. Mr Erdogan’s own ascent to power began as Istanbul mayor in 1994.
Unofficial results showed Mansur Yavas, the candidate of the Chp-led alliance, winning the top post in Ankara with 50.9 per cent support. The AKP still holds a majority of Ankara’s 25 districts.
The government had led a hostile campaign against Mr Yavas and his party, accusing him of forgery and tax evasion.
AKP secretary general Fatih Sahin said the party would challenge the results in Ankara, claiming alleged mistakes in vote counts could turn to their advantage. The AKP’S candidate for Ankara mayor, Mehmet Ozhaseki, won 47.1 per cent support.
The secular opposition also made significant gains in provinces along the Mediterranean, including taking the city of Adana from the nationalists and the tourism destination of Antalya from the ruling party. It also retained its hold over Izmir, Turkey’s third-largest city.
A strategic decision by a prokurdish party to sit out critical races in major cities contributed to the opposition’s gains.