Contested Istanbul election won again by opposition

The ruling party in Turkey was dealt a major setback on Sunday as the re-run of Istanbul’s mayoral election showed the same result they had previously contested.

The AKP, party of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, had contested and annulled the surprise victory by opposition party CHP’s candidate Ekrem Imamoglu in March.

Imamoglu’s victory in March, over former prime minister Binali Yildirim of the AKP, had a narrow margin of 13000 votes, and the electoral authority held that the election was invalid due to issues in the staffing at ballot boxes and concerns of stolen votes.

Incensed by this decision and alleging that pressure from Erdogan was influencing it, the CHP redoubled their campaign efforts in the re-run election, and Imamoglu increased his lead in the second ballot to over 600000 votes. With his opponent’s concession and President Erdogan’s official congratulations, the matter is now considered settled.

The blow to President Erdogan’s AKP is substantial, and the question now arises of whether those voters who were on the fence have been driven firmly into the opposition camp.