Turkey’s Opposition KOs Erdogan’s Candidate in Istanbul Mayoral Rerun

Ekrem Imamoglu of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) defeated Binali Yildirim of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party (AKP) to win Istanbul’s do-over mayoral elections. Turkey’s High Electoral Board has yet to announce the formal results. However, the state-owned Anadolu Agency reported that with 99 percent of the vote counted, Imamoglu had secured slightly over 54% of the vote compared to just over 45% yielded by Yildirim – who conceded defeat just a couple of hours after the polls closed. Imamoglu won with a much wider margin than his ultra-narrow victory in the initial elections in March, the results of which were annulled after Erdogan’s AKP alleged there had been widespread voting irregularities, leading to both domestic and international criticism. “In this city today, you have fixed democracy. Thank you Istanbul,” Imamoglu told supporters. CHP’s victory in Turkey’s largest city has ended the 25-year-long rule by AKP, a potentially fatal political blow to Erdogan before the country’s national elections in 2023.