© Reuters/RFI
People walk past by AK Party billboards with pictures of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and mayoral candidate Binali Yildirim in Istanbul, Turkey
It's official, or maybe not quite
- as perhaps predictably the AK partyplans to challenge the stunning defeat:
Erdogan's party has lost Turkey's three largest cities, Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir, to the opposition Republican People's Party, or CHP.
Ballots in the crucial local election were completely tallied on Tuesday, and the upset represents a huge setback for the president and his party amid a continued bleak and worsening economic situation.
The final results now with 100% of the ballots counted as reported by the semiofficial
Anadolu news agency put opposition candidate for mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, at 48.79%, barely inching out rival AKP candidate Binali Yildrim's 48.51%. And in the capital of Ankara, CHP's Mansur Yavas won with 50.93% of the vote, compared to AKP's Mehmet Ozhaseki's 47.12%.
Shooting back against critics who point out the local races were clear and biting indictments of Erdogan's leadership amid an ailing and troubled economy, and further amid worsening relations with the United States and the West, a representative of the Turkish presidency tweeted: "They will never learn. AK Party won 44.3% and the coalition won 51.6% of the votes." Spokesman Ibrahim Kalin lashed out further as part of the statement: "Erdogan has his mandate until 2023. Stop presenting your wishful thinking as fact and analysis."
Comment: "May is done..." and yet, she's still PM.