Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan suffered an unprecedented election defeat by the main opposition party since he came to power more than two decades ago. It is reported Bloomberg.
According to preliminary results, Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) trailed the main opposition People's Republican Party (PPP) in the March 31 municipal elections for the first time in history. Support for the AKP was 35,5%, while the NRP leads the race with 37,7% after almost 100% of the votes were counted.
AKP was to win the mayor's seat in 24 cities compared to 39 in 2019. The NDP leads the race in 35 provinces compared to 21 in the last election.
Erdogan conceded defeat in an address to his supporters outside the AKP headquarters in Ankara, promising "self-criticism".
"The elections on March 31 will be a turning point. We were not able to achieve the results we hoped for in the local elections." Erdogan said.
Sunday's results should boost Ekrem Imamoglu's popularity as the opposition mayor of Istanbul won by around 11 percentage points.
The vote is seen as a larger battle between Turkey's two most prominent political rivals. Imamoglu gained control of Istanbul in 2019, ending Erdogan's 25-year rule over the city. His NDP party also won in the capital, Ankara, against Erdogan's party in the same election, a crushing defeat for the Turkish president.
The results show that in most parts of the country voters turned away from the ruling party, but in urban areas the changes were more dramatic. This was mainly due to persistently high inflation even after Erdogan allowed the central bank to raise the country's key interest rate to 50%. But the authorities have yet to reverse the trajectory of price growth, the annual rate of which is slightly less than 70%.
To always be aware of the most important things, read us at Telegram
