2024-03-31 23:43:22
The president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, admitted in a speech at midnight this Sunday (03/31/2024) his party’s setback in the municipal elections. The results were celebrated by the opposition, which considerably expanded the number of provincial capitals in its power.
“We have not achieved the results we expected,” the president said in a speech in Ankara, broadcast live on the NTV network.
With 90% of the ballots counted, Erdogan’s party, the Islamist AKP, loses the majority of the vote for the first time in two decades to the advance of the social democratic CHP, which leads it by 1.5 points, more than half a million votes.
“The winner in these elections is democracy,” Erdogan said, adding that “the nation has spoken and has decided.”
He stressed that the elections had been carried out without major incidents and that the results express the will of the people.
“This is not an end, but a turning point,” said Erdogan, recalling that there are four years left until the next general elections.
“We will continue forward, we will continue winning: I believe in you,” the president insisted.
Opposition might obtain up to 36 capitals
The AKP ruled 38 provincial capitals since the 2019 municipal capitals, but if the results are confirmed, it will only have 23 from now on, while the CHP has risen from 22 to 36, including some AKP strongholds, such as Bursa, the fourth city in the country.
It has also expanded its lead in Istanbul and Ankara, cities it wrested from the AKP in 2019 following a quarter-century of Islamist municipal governments.
Opponents of Erdogan’s government celebrate the victory in the communal elections. Image: Ali Unal/AP Photo/picture alliance
With 58 percent of the ballots counted, the CHP maintains a lead of 250,000 votes nationwide, a striking reversal from the 2019 local elections, when it was 14 points behind its rival, the Islamist AKP, led by Erdogan. Furthermore, it not only maintains control over the two main cities and its fiefdoms on the western and Mediterranean coast, but also adds places where the AKP is historically strong, such as Bursa.
“Today, voters have decided to change and end the imbalance of power. The CHP has won a historic victory,” party president Özgür Özel declared at a press conference. “A clear message has been given to the Government: we want the rule of law to be returned to us, a country of all colors, where differences are wealth,” Özel said in a speech broadcast live on the NTV network.
Opposition mayor of Istanbul celebrates victory
Meanwhile, the opposition mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, announced on Sunday night his reelection as president of Turkey’s largest city, where he was first elected in 2019.
“We are in first place with an advantage of more than a million votes (…) We won the election,” he declared to the press and added that these results were based on the scrutiny of 96% of the ballot boxes.
“Voters have decided to change the face of Turkey,” said Özgür Özel, the president of the social democratic opposition party CHP, on Sunday night following the publication of the first results.
Erdogan, 70, fully committed himself to the electoral campaign in this country of 85 million inhabitants, to give a boost to the candidates of his party, the Islamo-conservative AKP.
One of his main objectives was to recover Istanbul, the economic capital of the country that he governed as mayor between 1994 and 1998.
Celebrate without disturbing
Özel, however, extended a conciliatory hand to his opponent: “There is no loser with this victory, no one should feel defeated with our victory. Good management has been rewarded and bad management has been punished,” he said.
Likewise, he asked his party’s supporters to “celebrate in the most silent and intimate way possible, without disturbing the followers of other parties” and not to take revenge for past defeats.
Provisional data shows that the AKP lost 13 of the 38 provinces it governed. Part of the AKP’s decline is due to the rise of its hitherto ally, the fundamentalist Islamist party Yeniden Refah (YRP), which even advances to fourth place in number of votes, although it only leads in two provinces, dominated until now by the AKP. .
1711947118
#Erdogan #recognizes #opposition #victory #municipal #elections
