Ruling AKP gets ready to appeal for re-vote of Istanbul local election

ANKARA

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is getting ready to ask the country’s Supreme Election Council (YSK) to order a re-vote in entire Istanbul, a party official has said, as the recount process in Maltepe district neared an end late April 14, after the Daily News went to print.

“We have said before that we would like to ask for the renewal of the Istanbul elections by using our right to an extraordinary objection. We have completed our preparations to a large extent. We will submit our appeal and supplements to the YSK soon,” AKP deputy chair Ali İhsan Yavuz tweeted on April 14.

At a meeting on April 10, the election body decided to wait to hold a decision on the final results in the Büyükçekmece district. The recount of votes in Maltepe, another district where the AKP appealed for a recount and the last remaining one with few unopened ballot boxes, continued on April 14 for a second week.

The YSK postponed for the second time its examination of the AKP’s appeal for the annulment of the vote in Büyükçekmece, won by the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) but challenged by the ruling party over alleged irregularities.

Click here for local election results in Istanbul according to Anadolu Agency

The AKP claims the residential addresses of over 11,000 people were unlawfully moved to Büyükçekmece in order to unfairly sway the elections, but the CHP says it has data proving otherwise.

The party would submit an “extraordinary objection” to the result of the mayoral poll, by law, within seven days after the completion of the recounting process in Istanbul.

Millions of Turkish voters cast their votes nationwide on March 31 in the local elections to choose Turkey’s mayors, city council members, muhtars (neighborhood officials), and members of elder councils.

According to unofficial results in the Istanbul mayoral race, before any recounts, Ekrem İmamoğlu, the candidate of the CHP, led with 48.79 percent of the vote, ahead of the AKP’s Binali Yıldırım who courted 48.51 percent of the vote.