Election board ruling is best for Istanbul: Erdoğan

ANKARA

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has praised the Supreme Election Board (YSK) decision to hold a re-run mayoral election in Istanbul, calling the March 31 elections in the metropolis “shady.”

“It has been the best decision for the elections, which have become controversial in its every stage from the polling clerks to the process of filing the votes to the registry,” Erdoğan said in a speech at an award ceremony and fast-breaking iftar dinner held by the Ankara Chamber of Commerce on May 9.

“There is corruption, irregularity here, thus [the mayoral election] will be done over,” he said.

The president said he would appreciate Ekrem İmamoğlu, candidate of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) - who was announced winner of the March 31 mayoral election before the cancellation - “if these stains had not been uncovered.”

The metropolitan mayoral election is scheduled for June 23, according to the YSK decision.  The elections authority’s ruling on May 6 was a response to objections from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).

Referring to the latest economic indicators, Erdoğan pointed to the incentives provided by the government.

“We are entering a period when the wheels of industry turn faster, the circulation in trade grows larger and the abundance of production and income gets bigger. Those who see that they cannot stop Turkey through other methods are now taking aim at our hope, our morale and our conviction that we will achieve our goals. This is the underlying objective of the operations that trigger interest and inflation rates,” he said.

“No sanctions threat, no additional tariff, no overt of covert embargo can stop us so long as we have confidence in ourselves.”