Turkey's main opposition party has claimed big election victories in the main cities of Istanbul and Ankara.
The results are a significant blow for Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had hoped to regain control of the cities less than a year after he claimed a third term as president.
He led the campaign to win in Istanbul, where he grew up and became mayor.
But Ekrem Imamoglu, who first won the city in 2019, scored a second victory for the secular opposition CHP.
Mr Erdogan had vowed a new era in Turkey's megacity of almost 16 million people, but the incumbent mayor of Istanbul was on course to win more than 50% of the vote, over 10 points ahead of the president's AK Party candidate.
Turkiye's opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) is ahead of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in municipal elections for the first time in 20 years after 50% of the ballots have been processed, according to the voting data published by Turkish broadcaster TRT Haber.
ReplyDeleteThe CHP currently has 37.8% of the votes and is slightly ahead of the AKP, which has 36.8%. Pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM) brings up the rear of the top three with just under 6% of the vote, while the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), which is allied with the AKP, has less than 4%.
Established in 2001, the AKP has come first in every municipal election since 2004.