Turkey’s main Opposition candidate was declared Istanbul’s Mayor on Wednesday after election recounts were finally completed, despite an appeal still pending by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s AK Party to re-run the vote in the country’s largest city.
Initial results from the March 31 local elections gave a narrow victory to the main Opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) in Turkey’s commercial hub, ending 25 years of control by the AK Party (AKP) and its Islamist predecessors.
New CHP Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu was handed a paper, mounted in a gold frame, which formally granted his mandate as city Mayor in a ceremony at an Istanbul court which was surrounded by a throng of supporters. The loss is especially hard for Mr. Erdoğan, who launched his political career in Istanbul as Mayor in the 1990s.
On Tuesday, after 16 days of appeals and recounts, the AKP asked the High Election Board to annul and re-run the election over what it said were irregularities. Its allies made a similar request on Wednesday.
