Municipal elections were held in Turkey. According to the results of counting almost 95% of the votes, victory went to the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).
This means that for the first time in the last two decades, the country’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Recep Tayyip Erdogan lost in these elections.
As TASS, citing the TRT TV channel, after counting almost 95% of the protocols, the CHP in the fight for the posts of mayors of large cities receives 37.3%, the AKP – 35.7%.
This means that the CHP has 15 of the 30 positions of mayors of large cities and 21 positions of mayor of regional centers.
Ankara, Istanbul, Izmir, Antalya
The AKP won in 11 metropolitan cities and 12 provincial capitals, but did not win in the fight for cities such as Ankara, Istanbul, Antalya or Izmir.
Mansur Yavash will remain the mayor of the capital. He received 59.5% of the vote, while his main rival from the AKP, Turgut Altinok, had only 32%.
Ekrem Imamoglu (50.8%) remains the mayor of Istanbul, having defeated the ruling party candidate Murat Kurum (40%).
The resort towns of Izmir and Antalya, considered strongholds of the opposition, showed a gap between the CHP and the AKP of approximately 10% in favor of the former.
By the way, the ruling party also lost in the fight for seats in city councils and district municipalities, gaining 32.8% against 33.9% for the CHP.
Erdogan’s reaction
Today, April 1, Turkey’s High Election Commission is due to publicly release preliminary election results.
However, party leaders and candidates have already declared victory or admitted defeat.
By the way, Erdogan acknowledged the fact that his party did not achieve the desired results, but noted that this is “not the end, but a turning point.”
The President said: the AKP will analyze what happened, draw the necessary conclusions and eliminate the mistakes made.
Earlier it was reported that Türkiye would reconsider the all-inclusive holiday format, popular among tourists.
