Local elections in Turkey: The opposition surprised Erdogan with a historic victory

The main opposition party in Turkey won important electoral victories on Sunday in the main cities of the country, Istanbul and Ankara, reports bbc.com.

The results are a significant blow to Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was hoping to regain control of the cities less than a year after claiming a third term as president.

He led the campaign to win in Istanbul, where he grew up and became mayor. But Ekrem Imamoglu, who won the city for the first time in 2019, scored a second victory for the secular opposition CHP.

Erdogan promised a new era in the Turkish megacity of nearly 16 million people, but Istanbul’s incumbent mayor was on course to win more than 50 percent of the vote, more than 10 percent ahead of the president’s AK Party candidate.

It was also the first time since Erdogan came to power 21 years ago that his party was defeated at the polls across the country.

In the capital Ankara, opposition mayor Mansur Yavaş was so far ahead of his rival, at 59 percent, that he declared victory when less than half of the votes had been registered. Supporters blocked all the main roads in the city, waving flags and honking horns.

Significantly, the CHP was also on course to win in many other large cities in Turkey, including Izmir and Bursa, Adana and the resort town of Antalya.

President Erdogan, 70, admitted the election did not go as he had hoped, but told supporters in Ankara that it would not mark “an end for us, but rather a turning point “.

He stressed that he had always relied on the “will of the people” for his authority and told supporters that he would respect the electorate now.

During the election campaign, Erdogan said that this would be his last campaign, as his presidential term ends in 2028.

But critics believe that the victory would have encouraged him to reform the constitution in order to run again. After such a dramatic defeat, this seems highly unlikely.

Instead, the result was a great success for CHP President Ozgur Ozel, who praised voters for deciding to change the face of Turkey through a historic vote: “They want to open the door to a new political climate in our country.”

Crowds in Istanbul gathered in front of the city hall in Sarachane, one of Istanbul’s oldest neighborhoods. They waved Turkish flags and banners displaying the photo of Ekrem Imamoglu alongside the founding father of Turkey, Kemal Ataturk, whose poster was placed on the walls of the local government building.

“I can say that the trust and belief of our citizens in us has been rewarded”, declared Imamoglu.

Both he and Mansur Yavaş are seen as potential candidates for the presidency in 2028.

“Everything will be fine,” Imamoglu’s supporters chanted as they danced to the beats of drums and clarinets in Sarachane, one of Istanbul’s oldest neighborhoods. Istanbul’s incumbent mayor first used the slogan when he won the city over Erdogan’s party five years ago. Some of Sarachane’s banners used his current slogan, “Full speed ahead”.

One fifth of Turkey’s population lives in Istanbul, which has almost 85 million inhabitants. Control of the city means control of a significant part of Turkey’s economy, including trade, tourism and finance.

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