Turkey’s main opposition party has claimed victory in Istanbul and Ankara in local elections, inflicting the biggest defeat on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party in more than two decades.
With more than 95 percent percent of ballot boxes opened in Istanbul on Sunday, Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) said he had defeated Erdogan’s AK Party candidate by more than one million votes.
“Those who do not understand the nation’s message will eventually lose,” Imamoglu, a former busines man, told thousands of supporters late on Sunday.
“Tonight, 16 million Istanbul citizens sent a message to both our rivals and the president.”
In the capital Ankara, CHP’s Mayor Mansur Yavas claimed victory over his rival, hailing the result as a “clear message to those who rule this country.”
The CHP was also ahead in Izmir, Turkey’s third city.
In total, CHP prevailed in 36 of Turkey’s 81 provinces, state-run Anadolu reported, making inroads into many AK Party strongholds.
Opposition supporters gathered in Istanbul to celebrate the results, with tens of thousands of people lighting torches and waving Turkish flags.
In a speech delivered from the balcony of the presidential palace, Erdogan, who has governed Turkey since 2002, acknowledged that his party had “lost altitude” across the country and said he would self-reflect and rectify any mistakes.
“We will correct our mistakes and redress our shortcomings,” he said.
In the previous elections in 2019, the CHP’s Imamoglu dealt Erdogan and his AK Party their biggest electoral blow up until then when he won the race to be mayor of Istanbul. The loss also struck a personal note for Erdogan, who was born and raised in the city and served as its mayor in the 1990s.
Sunday’s local elections represent a fresh blow to the president, who had set his sights on retaking control of those urban areas.
Some 61 million people were eligible to vote for mayors across Turkey’s 81 provinces, as well as provincial council members and other local officials on Sunday.
The nationwide local elections are seen by analysts and civilians as a gauge of both Erdogan’s support and the opposition’s durability amid soaring inflation and the crumbling of the Turkish currency against the dollar.
“Imamoglu is fine and does what he should as mayor, but he does not compare with Erdogan,” AK Party voter and retiree Omer told Reuters in Istanbul.
If Erdogan won back Istanbul and Ankara, he would have an incentive to “amend” the constitution to stand for re-election for a fourth term, Bayram Balci, a political scientist at France’s Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po), told the AFP news agency.
Meanwhile, an Imamoglu victory would make him a potential opponent to Erdogan’s ruling AK Party in the next presidential election in 2028.