Turkish election board rules in favour of partial Istanbul recount

Turkey’s High Election Board ruled in favour of a recount in seven of Istanbul’s 39 districts after an initial count showed the main opposition candidate earned a narrow victory in the city’s local election.

President Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party submitted objections to election results in all districts of Turkey’s commercial hub Istanbul and capital Ankara as initial results showed it was on course to lose control of both cities.

Erdogan is a native of the city’s working-class waterfront Kasimpasa district, and has remarked repeatedly that Istanbul is the key to controlling Turkey.

Istanbul mayoral candidate Ekrem Imamoglu, of the secular-nationalist, centre-left People’s Republican Party (CHP), surprised Turkey’s political world by defeating his well-financed AKP rival by 25,000 out of more than 8 million votes cast. CHP made other surprising inroads, though the AKP received the most votes and remain the country’s foremost political organisation.
The election setback may complicate Erdogan’s efforts to combat the economy’s slide into recession.

Via The Independent