- By Paul Kirby & Cagil Kasapoglu
- in London & Istanbul
Image source, REUTERS/Umit Bektas
Opposition supporters celebrated in Istanbul and other cities as the scale of victory became clear
Turkey’s main opposition party has declared victory in high-stakes elections in the main cities of Istanbul and Ankara.
Ekrem Imamoglu, who first became opposition mayor in Istanbul in 2019, said “the picture pleases us greatly”.
A year after Recep Tayyip Erdogan secured a third term as president, he had made it his goal to win back the city where he grew up and became mayor.
But the night belonged to the main opposition as it closed in on victory.
Significantly, the secular CHP was also on course for victory in many of Turkey’s other big cities, including Izmir and Bursa, Adana and the resort of Antalya.
The outcome was a significant blow for the man who has led Turkey for the past 21 years. This was the first time since he came to power that his AK Party was defeated across the country at the ballot box.
President Erdogan, 70, acknowledged the election had not gone as they had hoped, but he told supporters in Ankara it would mark “not an end for us but rather a turning point”.
He had led his party’s election campaign in Istanbul, vowing a new era in Turkey’s biggest city.
But with 85% of the vote counted in the city, Mr Imamoglu was more than 10 points ahead of his rival from Mr Erdogan’s AK Party.
In the capital Ankara, his colleague in the secular opposition CHP, Mansur Yavas, was so far ahead of his rival on 59% that he declared victory when less than half the votes were in. Supporters blocked all the main roads in the city, waving flags and sounding their car horns.
Image source, TOLGA BOZOGLU/EPA-EFE
Ekrem Imamoglu won Istanbul for the opposition in 2019
Party chairman Ozgur Ozel said praised voters for deciding to change the face of Turkey in a historic vote: “They want to open the door to a new political climate in our country.”
Crowds in Istanbul, a megacity of almost 16 million people, gathered outside one of the main town halls. They waved Turkish flags and banners showing Mr Imamoglu’s picture alongside Turkey’s founding father Kemal Ataturk, whose poster was draped down the walls of the local authority building.
“I can say that our citizens’ trust and faith in us has been rewarded,” said Mr Imamoglu.
Both he and Mansur Yavas are seen as potential candidates to run for the presidency in 2028.
“Everything is going to be great,” Imamoglu supporters chanted as they danced to drums and clarinets in Sarachane, one of Istanbul’s oldest districts.
Istanbul’s incumbent mayor had first used the slogan when he won the city from Mr Erdogan’s party five years ago. Some of the banners in Sarachane used his current slogan, “Full speed ahead”.
“They’re only local elections but the opposition’s victory in big cities is a significant show of force against the ruling party,” Imamoglu supporter Yesim Albayrak, 25, told the BBC.
Mehmet Bankaci, 27, told the BBC there was a need for change in Turkey: “If Imamoglu or Mansur Yavas had been the CHP candidate in last year’s presidential election, they definitely would have won.”
Five years ago, Mr Imamoglu overturned years of AK Party rule in Istanbul with the backing of other opposition parties. But that opposition unity fell apart in the wake of last year’s presidential election defeat and the AK Party had high hopes of overturning his 2019 victory.
The city hosts a fifth of Turkey’s population of nearly 85 million people. Control Istanbul and you control a significant portion of Turkey’s economy including trade, tourism and finance.
Ahead of Sunday’s election, the vote had been seen as too close to call, with the incumbent mayor facing a strong challenge from AK Party candidate Murat Kurum.
But the ruling party has been unable to shake off an economic crisis that has seen inflation rates of 67% and interest rates at 50%.
Mr Erdogan’s AK Party has had more success in areas of the south-east devastated by the February 2023 double earthquake. It is leading in the cities of Kahramanmaras and Gaziantep.
About 61 million Turks were eligible to take part in Sunday’s election and more than a million young voters were casting their ballots for the first time. Turnout was estimated at more than 76% across the country’s 81 provinces.
Image source, Murat Kulu/PPO/Handout
Sunday’s vote is seen as a test of President Erdogan’s popularity after 21 years in power
