Turkey’s President and the AK Party effectively shot themselves in the foot by ordering a re-run of May’s Mayoral election which saw main opposition party candidate Ekrem Imamoglu win Istanbul by 13,000 votes. Obviously unhappy at the decision President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed the vote was invalid on spurious grounds and the result is a damning indictment on his presidency.
Republican People’s Party (CHP) & Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu
Editorial credit: quetions123 / Shutterstock.com
In the re-run, Ekrem Imamoglu now has a majority of over 777,000 votes (and there are a few ballots still to be counted), a huge increase on what he achieved in the earlier election. This effectively ends 25 years of AKP control over the city and reinforces the position of the People’s Republican party (CHP) going forward. Maybe the days of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s rule are now numbered.
