Erdoğan congratulates opposition candidate for Istanbul win
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has congratulated the opposition candidate who won a repeat mayoral election in Istanbul. Erdoğan tweeted on Sunday night: "I congratulate Ekrem Imamoğlu, who has won according to unofficial results."
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- Published Date: 09:33 | 23 June 2019
- Modified Date: 09:40 | 23 June 2019
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan congratulated opposition candidate Ekrem Imamoğlu on Sunday for winning Istanbul's re-run mayoral election according to unofficial results.
"I congratulate Ekrem Imamoğlu, who has won the election based on preliminary results," Erdoğan said on Twitter.
The High Electoral Board is yet to announce the formal results but Imamoğlu is set for a comfortable victory over his rival Binali Yıldırım, from the ruling AK Party, with 54 percent of votes after more than 99 percent of the ballot boxes opened.
According to unofficial results, with 99.37% of ballot boxes opened, CHP's Imamoğlu got 54.03% of the votes, while AK Party's Yıldırım received 45.04% as of 8.00 p.m. local time (1700GMT).
Imamoğlu and Binali Yıldırım of the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party vied to run the metropolitan municipality of Turkey's most populous city after a previous vote on March 31 was annulled by the country's top election council last month.