ISTANBUL : Turkiye people dealt the biggest blow yet to President Tayyip Erdogan and his party on Sunday in a nationwide local vote that reaffirmed the opposition as a political force and solidified Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu as the president’s main rival.
After most of the votes were counted, Imamoglu led by 10 percentage points in the mayoral election in Istanbul, Turkiye’s largest city, while his Republican People’s Party (CHP) retained Ankara and gained 15 other mayoral seats in national cities.
It marks the worst defeat for Erdogan and his AK Party (AKP) in their more than two decades in power, and could signal change in the country’s divided political landscape. Erdogan called it a “turning point” in his speech after midnight.
Erdogan and the AKP fared worse than polls expected due to soaring inflation, dissatisfaction with Islamist voters and, in Istanbul, Imamoglu’s appeal went beyond the CHP’s secular base, analysts said.
“Those who do not understand the country’s message will ultimately lose,” Imamoglu, 53, told thousands of jubilant supporters on Sunday night, some of whom chanted for Erdogan to resign.
“Tonight, 16 million Istanbulites sent a message to our rival and the president,” said the former businessman, who entered politics in 2008 and is now being touted as a potential presidential challenger.
Erdogan, who in the 1990s also served as mayor of his hometown of Istanbul, has campaigned hard ahead of municipal elections, which analysts describe as a measure of his support and the opposition’s resilience.
Speaking to a crowd gathered at the AKP headquarters in the capital Ankara, Erdogan said his alliance had “lost ground” across the country and would take steps to respond to messages from voters.
“If we make mistakes, we will correct them” in the coming years, he said. “If there is something missing, we will solve it.”
Elsewhere in Ankara, thousands of other supporters earlier waved Turkiye flags and party flags as re-elected CHP Mayor Mansur Yavas made a speech, defeating his AKP challenger in another disappointment for Erdogan.
Based on 92.92% of ballot boxes opened in Istanbul, Europe’s largest city and the country’s economic engine, Imamoglu had 50.92% support compared with 40.05% for AKP challenger Murat Kurum, a former minister in Erdogan’s national government.
The poll predicts stiff competition in Istanbul and possible CHP losses across the country.
But some official results reported by the state-run Anadolu Agency showed the AKP and its main allies giving up mayoral posts in 19 main cities including the major cities of Bursa and Balikesir in the industrial northwest, possibly reflecting pressure on wage earners.
The CHP leads nationally with a margin of nearly 1% of the vote, its first in 35 years, according to election results.
Mert Arslanalp, assistant professor of political science at Istanbul’s Bogazici University, said this was Erdogan’s “worst electoral defeat” since coming to power in 2002.
