Turkey’s main opposition party has claimed big election victories in the main cities of Istanbul and Ankara on Sunday (March 31).
The results are a significant blow for Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had hoped to regain control of the cities less than a year after he claimed a third term as president.
He led the campaign to win in Istanbul, where he grew up and became mayor.
But Ekrem Imamoglu, who first won the city in 2019, scored a second victory for the secular opposition CHP.
Mr Erdogan had vowed a new era in Turkey’s megacity of almost 16 million people, but the incumbent mayor of Istanbul secured more than 50% of the vote, defeating the president’s AK Party candidate by more than 11 points and almost one million votes.
This was also the first time since Mr Erdogan came to power 21 years ago that his party was defeated across the country at the ballot box.
Turkey has been wrestling with sky-high inflation for several years and according to official figures prices are still rising by 67 percent a year.
In the capital Ankara, opposition mayor Mansur Yavas was so far ahead of his rival on 60% that he declared victory when fewer than half the votes were in. Supporters blocked all the main roads in the city, waving flags and sounding their car horns.
The CHP – the Republican People’s Party – won again in Izmir, Adana and the resort of Antalya. Significantly it also gained control of Turkey’s fourth-biggest city Bursa and Balikesir in the north-west, as well as Adiyaman, which hit hard by last year’s double earthquake in the south-east.
President Erdogan, 70, acknowledged the election had not gone as he had hoped, but he told supporters in Ankara it would mark “not an end for us but rather a turning point”.
He has always relied on the “people’s will” for his authority and he told supporters he would respect the electorate now too.
During the election campaign, Mr Erdogan said this would be his last, because his presidential term ends in 2028.
But critics believed that victory would have encouraged him to revise the constitution so he could stand again. After such a dramatic defeat that is looking very unlikely.
