<\/p>\n
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan conceded defeat on Sunday in the country\u2019s local elections, saying the vote was a \u201cturning point\u201d for his party after two decades in power.<\/p>\n
Partial results from across the nation of 85 million people showed major advances for the Republican People\u2019s Party (CHP) at the expense of Erdogan\u2019s Justice and Development Party (AKP).<\/p>\n
Istanbul\u2019s mayor, the opposition\u2019s Ekrem Imamoglu, claimed re-election with nearly all ballot boxes opened, telling a euphoric crowd of supporters: \u201cTomorrow is a new spring day for our country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Final results are expected to be released on Monday (today) by the country\u2019s electoral commission.<\/p>\n
Erdogan, 70, had launched an all-out personal campaign to win back Istanbul, the economic powerhouse where he was once mayor. Rampant inflation and an economic crisis have, however, hit confidence in the ruling party.<\/p>\n
Large crowds filled the square outside the opposition party\u2019s Istanbul city headquarters waving Turkish flags and lighting torches to celebrate the result.<\/p>\n
After casting his vote, Imamoglu emerged to applause and chants of \u201cEverything will be fine\u201d, the slogan he used when he first took the city hall from the AKP in 2019.<\/p>\n
The 52-year-old is increasingly seen as the biggest rival to Erdogan\u2019s AKP ahead of the next presidential election in 2028.<\/p>\n
In Ankara, mayor Mansur Yavas \u2014 also of the CHP \u2014 claimed victory in front of large crowds of supporters, declaring \u201cthe elections are over, we will continue to serve Ankara\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose who have been ignored have sent a clear message to those who rule this country,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Yavas led with 58.6 per cent of the vote to 33.5pc for his AKP opponent, with 46.4pc of ballot boxes opened.<\/p>\n
Opposition supporters celebrated victory in Izmir, Turkiye\u2019s third-largest city, as well as in the southern city of Antalya.<\/p>\n
Some AKP stronghold towns were at risk of being lost, results indicated.
\n\u201cVoters have chosen to change the face of Turkiye,\u201d said CHP chairman Ozgur Ozel as the results emerged.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey want to open the door to a new political climate in our country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Erdogan acknowledged the electoral setback in a speech to supporters at the headquarters of his party.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, we have not obtained the results that we wanted,\u201d he told a subdued crowd.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will of course respect the decision of the nation. We will avoid being stubborn, acting against the national will and questioning the power of the nation,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Erdogan has been president since 2014 and won<\/a> a new term in May last year.<\/p>\n He had called Istanbul the national \u201ctreasure\u201d when launching his campaign to retake the city.<\/p>\n But while he dominated the campaign, his personal role did not help overcome the widespread concerns over the country\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone is worried about the day-to-day,\u201d said 43-year-old Istanbul resident Guler Kaya as she voted.<\/p>\n \u201cThe crisis is swallowing up the middle class. We have had to change all our habits,\u201d she said. \u201cIf Erdogan wins, it will get even worse\u201d.<\/p>\n Although opposition parties had been fractured ahead of the poll, analysts predicted a stormy political future for the AKP and its allies.<\/p>\n Berk Esen, an academic at Sabanci University, said that the CHP had pulled off \u201cthe biggest election defeat of Erdogan\u2019s career\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cDespite an uneven playing field, government candidates have lost even in conservative strongholds. This is the CHP\u2019s best results since the 1977 elections,\u201d Esen said on his social media account.<\/p>\n \u201cWhoever wins Istanbul, wins Turkiye,\u201d Erman Bakirci, a pollster from Konda Research and Consultancy, recalled Erdogan once saying.<\/p>\n The election was held with the country reeling from an inflation rate of 67pc and having seen the lira currency slide from 19 to a dollar to 32 to a dollar in one year.<\/p>\n Clashes were reported in Turkiye\u2019s Kurdish-majority southeast, leaving one dead and 12 wounded, a local official told AFP<\/em>.<\/p>\n The pro-Kurdish DEM party said it had identified irregularities \u201cin almost all the Kurdish provinces\u201d, in particular through suspicious cases of proxy voting. About 61 million people were eligible to vote for mayors across Turkiye\u2019s 81 provinces, as well as provincial council members and other local officials.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan conceded defeat on Sunday in the country\u2019s local elections, saying the vote was a \u201cturning point\u201d for his party after two decades in power. Partial results from across the nation of 85 million people showed major advances for the Republican People\u2019s Party (CHP) at the expense of Erdogan\u2019s Justice and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78006,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2024\/04\/011250173fd2100.jpg?r=125040","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Unrest in southeast<\/h2>\n
\nObservers from France were refused access to a polling station in the region, according to the lawyers\u2019 association MLSA.<\/p>\n