ANP Productions | Source: ANP
Monday April 1, 2024 at 2:38 PM
Ankara
Now that all votes have been counted, it is clear that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has suffered a heavy defeat in Sunday’s local elections. His party AKP won 35.5 percent of the votes in Turkish cities and municipalities and lost to the opposition party CHP, which received 37.8 percent of the votes.
Political observers speak of the biggest loss for Erdogan in the twenty years he has been in power, first as prime minister and then as president.
Erdogan responded that “these are not the results he had hoped to achieve.” The president, who was re-elected in 2023, spoke of “a turning point for the party” and said he would “correct mistakes”.
The center-left Republican People’s Party (CHP) emerged as the big winner in the elections. In Ankara and Istanbul, where the CHP already seized power in 2019, the party is strengthening its position.
Burgemeester İmamoğlu
In Istanbul, the party won 51.1 percent of the vote, and the AKP 39.6 percent, although polls had predicted a neck-and-neck race. In the capital Ankara, the CHP even won with 60.4 percent, compared to 31.7 percent for the AKP.
The win is a boost in particular for the mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoğlu, as he is also considered a major challenger to Erdogan nationally. In a victory speech, Imamoğlu said this was the first step towards “democracy, freedom, equality, rationality and solidarity” in Turkey. Supporters see him as Erdogan’s successor, but the next Turkish presidential elections are not scheduled until 2028.
