dpa
Istanbul
Polling stations closed across Turkey on Sunday for municipal elections, election board chair Ahmet Yener told reporters in Ankara.
Preliminary results were expected later in the evening.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AKP party appears set to suffer a nationwide setback against the main opposition CHP, preliminary unofficial results showed.
Erdogan’s AKP is headed for defeat in all top five urban centres, including the largest metropolis Istanbul and capital Ankara, unofficial results from state news agency Anadolu showed.
The race for control of the largest city Istanbul and other industrial hubs will test President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s popularity amid a cost-of-living crisis and 10 months after he extended his rule with a third term. Roughly 61 million people were eligible to vote, including around 1 million first-time voters. Observers pointed to an unfair election campaign with 70-year-old Erdogan enjoying far larger state resources and controlling 90 percent of the mainstream media.
Istanbul will see one of the key clashes in the election.
The candidate for the secular Republican People’s Party (CHP) in Istanbul, current Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, is seeking election for another term. Imamoglu wrestled control from Erdogan’s ruling AKP in Istanbul in 2019, ending a 25-year stint by Islamic conservatives.
A second Imamoglu victory would set him up as the main rival to Erdogan in the next presidential elections, due in 2028. Polls showed a close race between Imamoglu and Erdogan ally Murat Kurum, the former urban planning minister from Erdogan’s AKP.
Istanbul, a metropolis of 16 million, holds a special status for Erdogan, whose political rise started there.
When his Istanbul candidate lost by a small margin in 2019 local elections, Erdogan’s government quickly moved to cancel the vote. In repeat polls, Imamoglu won by an even larger margin, handing Erdogan his worst political loss.
Observers have warned of the risk of a further slide into “authoritarianism” if Istanbul, with its around $16bn annual budget, is returned to AKP control.
