Erdogan acknowledges his party’s loss in the local elections and pledges to “respect the word of the people”

Turkey – Yesterday, Sunday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan delivered a speech that was like an acknowledgment of the loss of the local elections, before a mass gathering at the headquarters of the ruling Justice and Development Party in the Turkish capital, Ankara.

Erdogan said: “Thank God, we completed our local elections in a manner befitting the democracy of our people and our democracy. The people said their word through the elections.” It is a great gain for our democracy to have elections like this in which citizens vote as they please.”

He added: “These elections are not the end, but rather a turning point. The winner of these elections is Turkish democracy and Turkey.” Erdogan stressed that “the Turkish people clearly conveyed their message to the politicians.”

The Turkish President continued: “Unfortunately, we were not able to obtain the result we wanted in these elections, regarding 9 months following the presidential and parliamentary elections last year,” adding, “I hope that the results of these elections will be good for our country and our people.”

Erdogan concluded, “The election results show our loss of our progress and rise (with the results). We will evaluate the results with an open heart and conduct internal accountability… We will correct our mistakes and adjust the course.” As a government, we will continue to support the mayors who won the elections.”

He added: “We congratulate all the mayors who won the local elections. The people had their say, the ballot boxes were closed, and the page was closed. We will carefully review the results to find out where we made a mistake.”

The first preliminary results of the local elections in Turkey were released on Sunday, following the country’s Supreme Election Council lifted restrictions on reporting.

According to the preliminary and unofficial results of the Turkish Broadcasting Corporation (TRT), Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu is leading the race with 50.44% of the votes.

After 75.76% of the votes were counted, he was followed by the Justice and Development Party candidate, Murat Kurum, with 40.82% of the votes.

Later, Ekrem Imamoglu, the current mayor of Istanbul and the candidate of the opposition Republican People’s Party, announced his victory in the mayoral elections, and said in a press conference that 96% of the ballot papers had been counted, and he was ahead by a margin of one million votes.

Imamoglu added: “As of this moment, we can say that the people of Istanbul gave us the Greater Istanbul Municipal Elections.”

In the capital, Ankara, current mayor Mansur Yavaş leads with a comfortable percentage of 58.93%, while Turgut Altinok of the main opposition party trails behind the AKP with 33.15%.

In the western city of Izmir, known as the stronghold of the Republican People’s Party, with 70.05% of the votes counted, the CHP candidate Cemil Tugay is leading with 48.25%, while Hamzadag of the Justice and Development Party received 37.06%.

Vote counting continues across Turkey, but preliminary and official results show that the main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party, received a large number of votes and leads the overall vote with 37.35%.

The Justice and Development Party, led by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is trailing by 36.46%. The total vote counting rate in Turkey as of 00:00 Moscow time was 62.95%, and the participation rate was 76.65%.

Source: RT