BICOM

Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has lost mayoral elections in the country’s three largest cities, according to unofficial results published by the state-run Anadolu Agency on Monday.

The results of the local elections are viewed as a barometer of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s popularity which has been hit by recession and increasing unease at his authoritarian control.

Erdogan has not yet conceded Istanbul as the results are still unofficial, but the head of the High Election Council said the opposition mayoral candidate, Ekrem Imamoglu, was leading the Istanbul race by 27,806 votes, with only 24,000 remaining ballots to be counted.

In the capital, Ankara, unofficial results showed that CHP candidate Mansur Yavas had won 50.9 per cent of the vote, with the AKP candidate, Mehmet Ozhaseki trailing on 47.2 percent. In the third-largest city, Izmir, the CHP candidate, Mustafa Tunc Soyer, was leading with 58 per cent of the vote while the AKP’s Nihat Zeybekci got 38.5 per cent.

The official results will be released after the country’s election board examines objections by political parties, who have three days to file their complaints. If the Istanbul results are confirmed the AKP is likely to appeal to the High Election Council.

In the New York Times, Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Research Programme at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said: “While losing Istanbul would be a nuclear defeat for Erdogan … losing Ankara, which is shorthand for political power and government, is a pretty significant loss.”

Turkish media claims that corruption and cronyism in the municipalities were turning voters away from the ruling AKP, whilst opposition candidates offered change and promised to create jobs, improve education and social services.

Abdullatif Sener, former deputy prime minister to Erdogan, said that while the economy was deteriorating, Erdogan was building not only a second but a third presidential palace, and spending millions to fly around on his presidential plane.

The US has halted delivery of equipment for the F-35 fighter aircraft to Turkey in light of Ankara’s planned purchase of the S-400 Russian missile defence system. The move is the first step the US has taken to block delivery of the jet to a NATO ally. US officials told their Turkish counterparts that they will not receive any further shipments of F-35 related equipment needed to prepare for the arrival of the aircraft.