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Erdogan candidate suffers thumping defeat in Istanbul
turKey
THE June 23 Istanbul revote has delivered an earthquake in Turkish politics – Ekrem Imamo- glu, candidate for the main opposition party, has recorded a stunning victory over the candidate backed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Binali Yildirim. Yildirim has conceded defeat.
e initial reaction from Erdogan saw him cancel a press conference but congratulate Imamoglu with a tweet, using his name for the rst time in a month (lately he ordered his party’s o cials to describe him as “CHP’s candidate”). In further tweets, indicating he was set to try and take a business-as-usual approach despite a strategic move that has blown up in his face, he said Turkey is focused on its 2020 Centenary of the Republic targets and added that he would attend the G20 summit and visit China at the end of the month.
With 99.37% of ballots counted, Imamoglu had taken 54.03% of the vote for mayor com- pared to 45.09% for Binali Yildirim, giving him a lead of around 775,000 votes, according to state- run news service Anadolu Agency. Turnout was 84.42%. e revote was called by Turkey’s election watchdog after the original election, held during the country’s March 31 polls, pro- duced a narrow victory for the secular Republi- can People’s Party (CHP) candidate Imamoglu by 48.8% to 48.6% (with an o cial margin of around 13,000 votes). e result was disputed by Yildirim, Erdogan and their populist Justice and Development Party (AKP) on the basis of claimed “irregularities”.
The AKP and predecessor fellow Isla- mist-rooted parties ruled Istanbul for more than 25 years until the local elections.
The decision to call a revote was widely criticised abroad with, for instance, Turkey’s
largest trading partner Germany saying there was absolutely no justi cation for it. But Erdo- gan was stung and embarrassed by the rst vote as, with the debt-fuelled economy mired in dire trouble and Turkey’s human rights record coming in for more and more stinging criticism following nationwide crackdowns on Erdogan’s opponents, it was seen as a referendum on his 17-year-long rule. e revote too is seen as such a referendum as well as a test of what remains of Turkey’s democracy.
How strongman Erdogan reacts to this even worse humiliation, the biggest setback in his political career and a possible watershed moment for Turkey, is all-important. e Istanbul defeat could come to be seen as the beginning of the end for the pugnacious Turkish leader, who rose to prominence in politics as mayor of Istanbul in the mid-1990s and once said: “Whoever wins Istanbul, wins Turkey”.
snap elections speculation
ere is speculation in Turkey that the massive setback of losing Istanbul could prompt Erdogan to call snap elections in a bid to reassert control over his party and ruling coalition backed by the ultra-nationalist MHP, both of which have shown increasing evidence of factional in ght- ing among the growing economic and political pressures. e BBC reported Imamoglu as say- ing in a victory speech that the result marked a “new beginning” for the city, Turkey’s business and cultural capital and behind around a third of the country’s GDP.
“We are opening up a new page in Istanbul,” Imamoglu, 49, said. “on this new page, there will be justice, equality, love. We will stop the arro- gance and waste. Today 16 million Istanbullus
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 25 25•June•2019