Main opposition CHP to appeal result in Ankara

ANKARA

AA Photo

Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) has announced that it will appeal the results in Ankara. "We will file our objection today, I think it will affect the result," CHP Deputy Head Bülent Tezcan said March 31.

CHP's candidate Mansur Yavaş also said they would check the results and seek their rights.

Earlier, the Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) mayoral candidate for Ankara, Melih Gökçek, held a press conference to announce his victory over Yavaş.

Deputy Prime Minister Emrullah İşler, Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ and AKP Deputy PM Salih Kapusuz also attended the press conference, which was conducted after votes were counted at the party’s election office in Balgat.

The incumbent said at 6:30 a.m. that he was ahead of Yavaş by almost 30,000 votes, adding that 99.5 percent of the votes in the city had been counted.

Gökçek said they increased their votes 6.5 points compared to previous elections, while adding that the opposition could mar the atmosphere by saying there was fraud in the elections.

Yavaş declared victory in the polls on late March 30 before the majority of the votes were counted, saying there was a “perception management” attempt about the election results by some TV channels.

“We received almost 50 percent of the votes according to the information we have,” the CHP candidate said at a press conference at 8:30 p.m. local time on March 30.

Following Yavaş’s first statement, Gökçek held a press conference and declared victory, his fifth consecutive win for the local hot seat in the capital.