UPDATE 2-Istanbul recount halfway done, opposition candidate says still ahead


Reuters | Updated: 04-04-2019 19:51 IST | Created: 04-04-2019 19:51 IST
UPDATE 2-Istanbul recount halfway done, opposition candidate says still ahead

Turkey's main opposition candidate in Istanbul said on Thursday a local election recount was more than halfway done and he was holding onto his lead over his rival from President Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AK party. Initial results from Sunday's elections showed the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) had narrowly won control of Turkey's two biggest cities, Istanbul and Ankara, in a major upset for the president.

But Turkey's High Election Board ordered a recount in 18 of Istanbul's 39 districts after Erdogan's party appealed against the results, saying they were marred by invalid votes. CHP candidate Ekrem Imamoglu told reporters it appeared his lead had narrowed to 19,552 votes from an initial 25,000 - a very slim margin in a city of some 15 million people - but he was still confident of becoming Istanbul's mayor.

"The results will not change. Time is passing and Istanbul is waiting for service, so we just want to get to our job as soon as possible," Imamoglu said. The AKP's representative on the election board, Recep Ozel, told broadcaster A Haber that the opposition's margin would keep falling and his candidate, ex-prime minister Binali Yildirim, would emerge the winner in Turkey's commercial hub.

Defeat for Erdogan's Islamist-rooted party in Istanbul -where he launched his political career and served as mayor in the 1990s - would be a particularly heavy blow for the president. In Ankara, opposition candidate Mansur Yavas received 50.9 percent of votes to earn a nearly 4 percentage point victory over his AKP rival and former minister Mehmet Ozhaseki on Sunday. The AKP also appealed against those results, prompting the election board to order a recount in 11 of the city's districts.

AKP Secretary General Fatih Sahin told reporters on Thursday that the party was also unhappy with the Ankara recount, which was seen confirming the opposition's victory, and would appeal for a second, wider check on all the results. RECESSION IMPACT

Erdogan, who has dominated Turkish politics since coming to power 16 years ago and ruled his country with an ever tighter grip, campaigned relentlessly for two months ahead of Sunday's vote, which he described as a "matter of survival" for Turkey. But the president's daily rallies and overwhelmingly supportive media coverage came up against widespread anger about Turkey's recession which has brought surging inflation and unemployment, and caused the lira to plunge.

Uncertainty generated by the local elections has fuelled volatility in the currency, which sold off sharply nearly two weeks ago, reflecting waning confidence among both Turks and international investors. It stood at 5.6139 to the dollar at 1358 GMT. Before the elections, the CHP formed an alliance with the Iyi (Good) Party to rival the alliance between the AKP and their nationalist MHP partners. They named joint candidates in certain cities, including Ankara and Istanbul.

If the initial results are confirmed, the CHP will gain control of municipal budgets with an estimated total value of 32.6 billion liras ($5.79 billion) for 2019 in the capital and Istanbul. (Editing by Dominic Evans, Jonathan Spicer and Andrew Heavens)

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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