ISTANBUL (Halbeeg News) – Turkish top election board announced the vote for the mayor of Istanbul, the country’s largest city and economic hub.
New rerun vote will be held on June 23, the board said in a statement, adding the March 31 election was canceled because of “situations which affected the result and honesty” of the polls.
Some ballot box committees were formed illegally by district election board members who will face criminal complaints, the High Election Board said.
It also voted to cancel the mandate of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).
Imamoglu was declared the mayor of the metropolis on April 17, pending the AK Party’s last objection to the close results.
President Erdogan ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party had lodged an “extraordinary objection” and asked for a rerun of the election after the previous appeal the party alleged voting irregularities made the results invalid.
Erdogan Toprak, an Istanbul parliamentarian with the CHP, said the board’s decision to redo the Istanbul polls opened the reliability of the Turkish legal and electoral systems up for discussion.
According to the final tally announced by the provincial election board on April 17, Imamoglu secured the mayoral seat with 4,169,765 votes, while the AK Party’s Binali Yildirim received 4,156,036 votes – a difference of 13,729 votes.
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