Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his party suffered their biggest upset in more than two decades on Sunday as the opposition swept municipal elections in Istanbul and other major cities.
The Republican People’s Party (CHP) retained mayoral seats in two key cities – Istanbul and the capital, Ankara.
The CHP also gained 15 new mayoral seats in cities across the country, advancing in locales that were previously strongholds of the Turkish president and his AK Party (AKP), marking the worst defeat since the latter came to power 21 years ago.
In all, the CHP won 36 municipalities in Turkey’s 81 provinces, according to Anadolu, a state-run news agency.
Thirty-seven per cent of votes nationwide went to the CHP, compared with 36 per cent for the AKP.
The historic results could indicate a shift in the country’s fraught political landscape.
Mr Erdogan called it a “turning point” in a late-night address as the majority of election results began rolling in as Sunday drew to a close.
His party fared worse than opinion polling had suggested, given serious economic woes and soaring inflation.
Some of Mr Erdogan’s core Islamist voter base also appeared to be dissatisfied with the president and the AKP, writing “Gaza” and “Free Palestine” on their paper ballots, rather than stamping “evet” or “yes” votes.
Mr Erdogan, who had capitalised on pro-Palestinian sentiments, has not officially cut diplomatic ties with Israel – a move that appears to have upset some supporters.
In Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, the incumbent mayor, succeeded in his continued appeal to a secular base.
“Tonight, 16 million Istanbul citizens sent a message to both our rivals and the president,” Mr Imamoglu told his supporters on Sunday, as some in the crowd chanted for Mr Erdogan to resign.
“Those who do not understand the nation’s message will eventually lose,” he said.
Despite some calls for the Turkish president to step down, Mehmet Ucum, his chief adviser said that there would not be snap elections held before 2028, when Mr Erdogan’s current presidential term ends.
Mr Imamoglu, a businessman who entered politics in 2008, is considered a serious presidential challenger.
He remains, however, embroiled in various court cases that supporters believe are an attempt to throw up political obstacles.
In 2022, a Turkish judge sentenced Mr Imamoglu to two and a half years in prison and imposed a political ban; an appeals court has yet to rule on the case.
Another case was opened last year against Mr Imamoglu for allegedly tender rigging and could result in a maximum sentence of seven years in prison.
Mr Erdogan himself was also jailed for four months in 1999 for reciting a poem that a court ruled was incitement to religious hatred, an incident that boosted his star power.
Whether the CHP’s success will hold until the next presidential election remains to be seen.
Before heading to polling stations, some Turks spoke of voting for what they considered the lesser of two evils; others, disillusioned by the country’s deeply divided political landscape, didn’t bother to vote at all.
Turnout was indeed lower than past elections at about 76 per cent of the 61 million people eligible to cast ballots, according to Anadolu, compared with 87 per cent in last year’s presidential elections.
Local elections are available only to Turkish voters living in the country, while presidential elections are open to eligible Turks living abroad, and the diaspora has long been a bastion of support for the AKP.
As election results ticked in, Mr Erdogan said that his alliance had “lost altitude” across Turkey and vowed recourse.
“If we made a mistake, we will fix it,” he said. “If we have anything missing, we will complete it.”
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