Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan tweeted his congratulations to opposition candidate Ekrem Imamoglu after the latter’s victory in the Istanbul mayoral elections.
"I wish that the results of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality election will be beneficial for our Istanbul," Erdogan tweeted. “National will has manifested once again today. I congratulate Ekrem Imamoglu, who won the election, according to the preliminary results.”
With some 99% of ballots counted Sunday night, Republican People’s Party (CHP) candidate Imamoglu is ahead with 54% of votes, while Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) candidate Binali Yildirim received about 45%, according to Anadolu Agency.
In May, Imamoglu won the mayoral election by a margin of some 13,000 votes, but Yildirim contested the results citing electoral irregularities and a recording errors. New elections were scheduled for June and this time Imamoglu appears to have won by an even larger margin of approximately 775,000 votes, according to AFP.
Erdogan: I wish results of Istanbul election to be beneficial for Istanbul
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