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Erdoğan's party defeated in Istanbul mayoral election rerun Ekrem İmamoğlu defeats AKP in Istanbul mayoral election
(about 3 hours later)
Turkey’s ruling party in Istanbul’s controversial mayoral election rerun has conceded defeat, handing the nation’s beleaguered opposition a landmark victory that will have dramatic consequences for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s grip on the country. Turkey’s opposition has won a high-stakes rerun of the Istanbul mayoral election, a landmark victory in a country where many feared democracy was failing and a serious blow to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The ruling Justice and Development party (AKP) candidate and former prime minister Binali Yıldırım admitted he had lost to the opposition Republican People’s party (CHP) candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu in televised remarks just two-and-a-half hours after polls closed on Sunday evening, congratulating his rival and imploring him to serve Istanbul well. Shortly after initial results pointing to a landslide win for opposition coalition candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu emerged on Sunday evening, the candidate of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), Binali Yıldırım, conceded and congratulated his rival.
In his victory speech, İmamoğlu hailed his win as marking “a new page in Istanbul.” The repeat election, designed to undo İmamoğlu’s narrow surprise win in the 31 March contest, was an unprecedented test for both Turkey’s fragile democratic institutions and Erdoğan’s political future.
“On this new page, there will be justice, equality, love. We will stop the arrogance and waste. Today 16 million Istanbullus have refreshed our belief in democracy. I thank them all from my heart. You have shown the world that Turkey still protects its democracy. And we have shown other countries who try to go down the road we were choosing that it is no road at all,” he said. Yıldırım’s swift concession saved the AKP the embarrassment of watching the vote count add up to a second defeat, but the loss is likely to lead to intense new power struggles inside the coalition government. Opposition parties were jubilant.
Sunday’s rerun, in which at least 10 million people were eligible to vote, was seen as a test for Turkey’s fragile democratic standards and Erdoğan’s political future. “We are starting a new page in Istanbul. On this new page, there will be justice, equality, love. Today 16 million Istanbullus have refreshed our belief in democracy,” İmamoğlu told supporters in a televised speech.
The swift concession by Yıldırım, an Erdoğan ally, spared the AKP the embarrassment of watching live results trickle in on Sunday night. However, it will now lead to intensified power struggles between factions inside the ruling coalition. “I thank them all from my heart. You have shown the world that Turkey still protects its democracy. And we have shown other countries who try to go down the road we were choosing that it is no road at all.”
Turkey’s opposition, meanwhile, was jubilant at the initial results. Cars honked incessantly in liberal neighbourhoods and strangers shook hands and congratulated each other on the win. İmamoğlu’s voice echoed from public television screens and from inside cafes. The president issued his congratulations to İmamoğlu on Twitter after initial results showed that with 99% of ballots counted the People’s Republican Party (CHP) candidate had increased his lead in March, of 13,000 votes, to an astonishing 777,000, or 54%.
“I think he has quite a difficult job ahead of him and I’m not expecting big changes,'” said Mehmet Kizilay, 36, who voted for Imamoglu. “But it’s a very promising and hopeful start. We are very happy he won.” Crowded parties broke out on Istanbul’s main shopping streets and in liberal neighbourhoods.
İmamoğlu first stunned the country after a narrow win in local elections held on 31 March, a rare defeat and personal blow to Erdoğan in his beloved hometown. “This has brought people hope,” said Semra Deniz, 35, from the city’s artistic hub, Cihangir. “I came to this neighbourhood six years ago and a lot has changed. Places closed down. I hope the cultural erosion is reversed and people feel free to express themselves again.”
However, after weeks of AKP appeals, Turkey’s electoral board upheld one of the ruling party’s complaints regarding ballot counting and annulled İmamoğlu’s victory – a decision that sparked international outrage. Despite blanket pro-government media coverage, İmamoğlu, a previously anonymous local administrator, stunned the country with his narrow win in March. For Erdoğan, the loss of his hometown, where his political career began in the 1990s, was a personal blow.
“I’m not happy I’ve had to come vote again,” Aysun Coç, 53, said after casting her vote on Sunday morning. “İmamoğlu will win again with an even bigger margin this time. So what, they will make us do another vote next month? After weeks of AKP appeals, Turkey’s electoral board upheld one complaint regarding ballot counting and annulled İmamoğlu’s victory, sparking outrage even within the ruling party’s ranks, where some feared the board had dented the AKP’s democratic credentials.
“The government will have to accept the result this time. If they don’t, we are ready to protest in a big way.” At polling stations on Sunday both CHP and AKP voters stressed that they wanted the repeat election accepted as final.
Yıldırım, worked hard to close the gap of 13,000 votes, reaching out to the party’s base in working class and conservative neighbourhoods who punished the government for Turkey’s economic crisis by staying away from the voting booth in March. “Clearly there is some funny business going on here but I don’t know what,” said AKP voter Cihat Içyumaz, 65, who like many Istanbullus cut short his summer holiday to vote. “For me, chaos after this round of elections is the scariest outcome. I just want the candidate who is best for Istanbul to win.”
However, in a televised debate with İmamoğlu and in conversations with voters Yıldırım struggled to explain why a repeat election is necessary. Two days before the vote, most reliable polls showed that İmamoğlu’s lead over his rival had widened to as much as 9%. Unofficial counts showed that with nearly all ballot boxes counted, İmamoğlu had a lead of more than 715,000 votes. Yıldırım made his concession speech minutes later. Yıldırım worked hard in the second round of campaigning to close the gap with his rival, reaching out to the party’s base in working class and conservative neighbourhoods, voters who punished the government for Turkey’s economic crisis by staying away in March.
İmamoğlu, a previously anonymous local administrator was embraced by voters across the city in March for a platform that focused on bringing people together across the city’s highly polarised religious, class and ethnic divides. However, in both a televised debate with İmamoğlu and in conversations with voters, Yıldırım struggled to explain why the repeat election was necessary.
He painted his new campaign as a battle for the future of Turkish democracy itself. İmamoğlu was embraced by voters for a platform which focused on bringing people together across the city’s religious, class and ethnic divides, and was able to paint his new campaign as a battle for the future of Turkish democracy itself.
“Today our people will make the best decision … for the sake of our democracy, for Istanbul and also for the legitimacy of all future elections,” he told reporters after voting on Sunday morning. “The AKP decision to go for a rerun was a colossal strategic mistake,” said Turkish-American political scientist Soner Cagaptay. “And the campaign was an uncharacteristic mess. For the first time in a long time, [the AKP] were on the back foot here, running after the opposition, who dominated the narrative.
Erdoğan returned to his hometown from capital Ankara to cast his vote. “I believe the thinking voter will make the best decision for Istanbul,” he told hundreds of supporters who greeted him near his residence in Üsküdar, on the Asian side of the Bosphorus. “Erdoğan has to do some serious house-cleaning in his government and reassess his policy making process to bounce back from this, or the suggestion that this is the beginning of his decline will get louder.”
Losing Istanbul for a second time had been an unthinkable outcome for the AKP. As Turkey’s biggest city and economic hub, Istanbul accounted for 31% of Turkey’s GDP in 2017, and the city is an important driver of the government’s unofficial patronage networks. It has been controlled by the ruling party and its Islamist predecessors for the last quarter of a century. Rumours are already circulating that the second defeat could trigger a snap national election as Erdoğan seeks to oust increasingly fractious elements in his governing coalition.
“If İmamoğlu wins again, there’s going to be a chain of serious changes in Turkish politics,” journalist and writer Murat Yetkin told Reuters earlier on Sunday. Losing Istanbul for a second time is an unthinkable outcome for the AKP. Turkey’s biggest city and economic heart, it accounted for 31% of GDP in 2017 and is an important driver of the government’s unofficial patronage networks. It has been controlled by the ruling party and its Islamist predecessors for a quarter of a century.
“It will be interpreted as the beginning of a decline for AKP and for Erdoğan as well,” he added, noting that the president himself had called the local elections “a matter of survival”. The writing on the wall that could spell disaster for Erdoğan in Istanbul election
Soner Cagaptay, a Turkish-American political scientist, said: “Imamoglu’s lead today shows is that Turkey’s democratic structures are incredibly resilient. Turkey has been ruled by a populist leader for almost two decades: he has tried to erode the rule of law and take over the media. Observers note that İmamoğlu’s mandate is still far from assured: the 2015 general election which saw the AKP lose its majority in parliament was rerun and other charismatic challengers to Erdoğan have been imprisoned or folded under pressure.
“People say it takes a long time to build a democracy, but what today’s result shows is it takes a long time to kill a democracy, too. I think this is the first example of that we have seen anywhere in the world.” The AKP still controls 25 of Istanbul’s 39 districts and holds a majority in the municipal assembly, which will make it difficult for İmamoğlu to deliver on campaign promises. The margin of his victory, however, shows that at least in Istanbul there is a strong appetite for change after 16 years of national AKP rule.
Rumours are already circulating in political circles that the second defeat could trigger a snap national election as Erdoğan seeks to oust increasingly fractious elements in his current government coalition. “Turkey has been ruled by a populist leader for almost two decades: he [Erdoğan] has tried to erode the rule of law and take over the media,” Cagaptay said.
Former president Abdullah Gül, who has been openly critical of the decision to rerun Istanbul’s mayoral election, caused a stir on Sunday by telling reporters “God willing everything will be fine”. The phrase’s similarity to İmamoğlu’s slogan – “Everything will be fine” – led to speculation the former Erdogan ally had cast his ballot for İmamoğlu. “People say it takes a long time to build a democracy, but what today’s result shows it takes a long time to kill a democracy too. Clearly, Turkey’s democratic structures are incredibly resilient.”
Across the city on Sunday, both AKP and CHP voters were united in their desire to avoid further political turmoil after polls closed at 5pm.
“Clearly there is some funny business going on here but I don’t know what,” aid 65-year-old AKP voter Cihat Içyumaz, who, like many Istanbullus, cut short his summer holiday to come home and vote.
“For me, chaos after this round of elections is the scariest outcome. I just want the candidate who is best for Istanbul to win.”
Istanbul set for mayor vote re-run that could cement blow to Erdoğan
The Council of Europe, a France-based human rights organisation, deployed a team of monitors across Istanbul to observe Sunday’s election.
Additional reporting by Gökçe Saraçoğlu
TurkeyTurkey
Recep Tayyip ErdoğanRecep Tayyip Erdoğan
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