Turkish opposition criticizes electoral board for accepting recount demand

The head of Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) said on Monday that the High Electoral Board, which has agreed to a partial recount of local votes in Istanbul, has entered a process that damages the security of ballot boxes. President Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party requested on Sunday a recount of all votes in Istanbul after its mayoral candidate lost by a slim margin on March 31. A recount of invalid votes in some districts of Istanbul and full recounts in others over the past week have narrowed but not closed the gap between the two candidates.

The CHP's Kemal Kilicdaroglu said the board's judges need to be impartial and that a full recount needed a reasonable justification. He added that with 92.3 per cent of partial recounts completed in Istanbul, his party's candidate, Ekrem Imamoglu, was leading by a margin of 15,722 votes. The city has 15 million people.

(With inputs from agencies.)