On some streets this morning banners hung with the inscription „Tesekküler Istanbul“ – „Thank you Istanbul!“ On it the faces of President Erdogan and his candidate for the Istanbul Mayor election. But thank you for what?
During the night Yildirim himself declared himself the winner of the election, even before all the votes were counted. That was probably a bit premature. In the morning, the candidate of the Social Democratic CHP, Ekrem Imamoğlu, also claimed the lead: „We all will vigilantly follow the further counting here and in the offices of the High Electoral Council and we will not give up.“
„The evaluation continues“
Striking was the unfamiliar restraint of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on election night. In his traditional speech on the balcony of the party headquarters in Ankara, he declared Istanbul neither won nor lost.
At the state news agency Anadolu, the count stagnated since late in the evening in 98 percent of the ballot boxes. The website of the electoral authority was not accessible. This morning, their boss Sadi Güven finally declared that the results of 84 ballot boxes had not yet been fed into the system due to „various objections“.
So far, Ekrem Imamoğlu has received 4,159,650 votes and Binali Yıldırım 4,131,761 so far. So a margin of almost 28,000 votes for the CHP candidate. „But the evaluation continues,“ says Güven.
Imamoğlu himself assumes that he received 25,158 more votes than his Rival Yildirim from the AKP. This shows the database of the CHP.
Also, repetition of the election is not excluded
After these comments Güven the state news agency Anadolu was apparently forced to publish the numbers in a breaking news. On the electoral side of Anadolu, the count is still stagnating at 98 percent including leadership for Yildirim. The head of the electoral authority can not explain this.
„I do not know where she takes her data from us anyway.“
It can take hours or days to get the final result. It can not be ruled out that the election will be repeated in Istanbul. In any case, the banners with „Tesekküler Istanbul“ have since been hung up again.
After the opposition CHP was in the lead in the Turkish capital Ankara, AKP General Secretary Fatih Sahin said that his party wanted to have invalid votes reviewed. From this he expects a shift of earnings in favor of the AKP.
The CHP candidate Mansur Yavas was clearly ahead in Ankara with 50.9 percent. Mehmet Özhaseki of the AKP achieved only 47 percent.
