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Partial results in local elections show CHP candidates ahead of their AK Party rivals in Ankara and Istanbul.
Turkey's main opposition party, the Republican People's Party (CHP), appears set to retain control of major cities, according to preliminary partial results of the country's local elections.
With 49 percent of ballot boxes opened in Istanbul on Sunday, CHP Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu leads with 50.05 percent of the vote, while President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party, or AK Party, candidate Murat Kurum has 41.2 percent.
In Ankara, with 29.2 percent of ballot boxes opened, CHP Mayor Mansur Yavaş leads with 58.2 percent against the Erdogan-backed candidate's 34.1 percent.
The CHP was also ahead in Izmir, Turkey's third city and party stronghold.
The state-run Anadolu news agency published partial official figures showing the CHP leading in major cities such as Izmir, Bursa, Antalya and Adana.
“Based on the data we have received, I can say that our citizens' trust in us has been rewarded,” Imamoglu told reporters at the CHP's Istanbul headquarters.
“The picture we have seen now makes us very happy, but no election is decided before it is over,” he said.
“This election will mark the beginning of a new era for our country,” Erdogan said before casting his vote.
In the last elections in 2019, the CHP's Imamoglu dealt Erdogan and his AK Party their biggest electoral blow in their two decades in power when he won the race to become mayor of Istanbul. The loss is also a personal one for Erdogan, who was born and raised in the city and served as its mayor in the 1990s.
Sunday's local elections appear to be a fresh blow to the president, who had planned to recapture those urban areas.
About 61 million folks had been eligible to vote for mayors in addition to provincial council members and different native officers in Turkey's 81 provinces on Sunday.
Nationwide native elections are considered by analysts and residents as a measure of each assist for Erdogan and the sturdiness of the opposition.
“Imamoglu is okay and does what he ought to do as mayor, however he doesn’t evaluate with Erdogan,” Omar, an AK Celebration voter and retiree, informed Reuters in Istanbul.
Bayram Balci, a political scientist at France's Paris Institute of Political Research (Sciences PO), defined that if Erdogan received in Istanbul and Ankara, he must “amend” the structure to permit him to face for re-election for a fourth time period. Might be inspired to take action. AFP information company.
In the meantime, Imamoglu's victory would make him a possible rival to Erdogan's ruling AK Celebration within the subsequent presidential election in 2028.