Istanbul, Turkey ( Halbeeg News) – Residents of Istanbul will be back at the polling stations on Sunday in a rerun of the mayoral election, which was last held about three months ago.
The rerun comes weeks after Ekrem Imamoglu, the candidate of main opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP), won the contest in Turkey’s commercial hub by a slim margin over Binali Yildirim of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party).
The result of the March 31 polls was a big blow to the AK Party, which is the same local polls also lost control of the country’s capital, Ankara, and Izmir, the third largest city.
The AK Party, led by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, successfully lobbied for a rerun of the Istanbul mayoral vote, after Imamoglu secured the seat with a difference of just 13,729 votes.
Imamoglu spent only 18 days in office when Turkey’s election board ordered a rerun in the country’s largest city, citing “situations which affected the result and honesty” of the polls. The decision came after the AK Party, which ran Istanbul for the past two decades, lodged an “extraordinary objection” against the result.
A country with very few swing voters, residents in Turkey have deep-rooted loyalty to their respective political choices.
Kamat, a 39-year-old AK Party supporter, said he was “glad” a new vote would be held.
Source: ALJAZEERA ENGLISH
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