BICOM

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan suffered a significant personal setback yesterday when his party was resoundingly defeated in a rerun of the Istanbul mayoral election.

Opposition coalition candidate, Ekrem Imamoğlu won 54 per cent of the vote, scoring a convincing win over Justice and Development Party (AKP) candidate and former Prime Minister Binali Yildirim. Imamoglu increased his lead over Yildirim from just 11,000 votes in March to 700,000 in Sunday’s election. Istanbul has economic, political and symbolic significance for Turkey and Erdoğan personally, who launched his career in national politics as mayor of the city in the 1990s. Erdogan is believed to have personally forced a rerun of the original election in a bid to reverse the outcome, a major miscalculation which has backfired.

Imamoğlu, from the secular Republican People’s Party, ran a positive campaign stressing the values of democracy and unity. After his victory he said: “We are starting a new page in Istanbul. On this new page, there will be justice, equality, love. Today 16 million Istanbullus have refreshed our belief in democracy … I thank them all from my heart. You have shown the world that Turkey still protects its democracy. And we have shown other countries who try to go down the road we were choosing that it is no road at all.”

The result brought crowds into the streets in celebration. Erdoğan is a highly divisive figure, eliciting both passionate support and fervent opposition in Turkey after 13 years in power. Many voters felt Turkish democracy was as stake after the rerun was forced by the President. The AKP also lost ground with its base of working class and traditional voters due to Turkey’s economic crisis, according to reports. Local analysts stress the significance of the result against the backdrop of growing fissures within the AKP and its ruling national coalition.

Erdoğan issued a brief message of congratulations to Imamoğlu on Twitter, whilst his defeated opponent Yildirim wished him success.