Turkey Cancels Istanbul Election Won by Erdogan’s Opposition

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Bloody tyrant.

Turkey Cancels Istanbul Election Won by Opposition

Ruling AKP says balloting was marred by fraud and irregularities, but outraged mayor’s party calls situation a matter of wanting to preserve control

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ISTANBUL—Turkey’s national election board canceled results of the Istanbul mayoral race that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party lost five weeks ago and ordered a rerun, sparking outrage in opposition ranks and fueling investor concerns over heightened economic volatility.

Ruling on complaints filed by Mr. Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, or AKP, the election board said a new vote was necessary because fraud and irregularities had material influence on the March 31 results in Istanbul. The ruling is final and can’t be challenged in court.

Mr. Erdogan had thrown his weight behind the AKP’s fraud claims, calling for a rerun.

“Fraud and corruption are evident here,” the president said in a speech on Saturday. “Let’s return to the ballot boxes.”

The election board canceled the mandate of Ekrem Imamoglu, the candidate from the social-democratic Republican People’s Party, or CHP, who had been sworn in as Istanbul mayor, and set the new vote for June 23. The government is expected to appoint a caretaker in the interim.

Erdogan’s Grip on Turkey Slips Following Elections

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was dealt a stinging blow in late March after his party lost a string of strongholds in mayoral elections across the country. Voters registered their displeasure with the country’s high inflation and slowing growth. Photo: Reuters (Originally published April 1, 2019)

Mr. Imamoglu condemned the ruling, saying he would travel to Ankara on Tuesday to consult with CHP leaders and decide on a course of action.

“Do not lose hope,” he told supporters.

A repeat election in Istanbul could set the stage for a brutal confrontation between an increasingly authoritarian Mr. Erdogan and an emboldened opposition, which won control of the capital Ankara and several other large cities in the municipal election. In some Istanbul neighborhoods, supporters of Mr. Imamoglu opened their windows late Monday, and banged pots with wooden spoons shouting “YSK resign,” referring to the election board’s Turkish initials.

Economists voiced concerns that a new round of campaigning would prevent the government from focusing on its pledge to repair a Turkish economy mired in recession and beset by a weakening lira.

“This leaves Turkish markets and the economy vulnerable in the period to rerun elections,” said Timothy Ash, an emerging-market strategist at BlueBay Asset Management in London.

The decision comes as Turkey is locked in a dispute with the U.S., which has threatened to punish Ankara with sanctions over its planned purchase of a Russian antiaircraft missile system on the grounds it would create unacceptable security risks. Turkish authorities say U.S. concerns are unwarranted.

CHP leaders called Mr. Erdogan a “bad loser,” saying the fraud claims were groundless and that AKP was trying to preserve control over Turkey’s largest city and its colossal budget.

“It is legal to run against the AKP, but illegal to win against them,” CHP Deputy Chairman Onursal Adiguzel said in a tweet. “This is plain dictatorship.”

At issue, according to complaints filed by Mr. Erdogan’s AKP, is the alleged disloyalty of officials in charge of overseeing vote counting at polling stations. The CHP said the claim doesn’t make sense because the AKP had no grievance toward the same officials when they validated Mr. Erdogan’s victory in last year’s presidential election.

Immediately after the March 31 vote, Mr. Erdogan had given the impression he would concede the loss of Istanbul, saying defeat was part of democracy.

In recent weeks, however, the president intensified calls for a rerun, citing Mr. Imamoglu’s thin victory margin of 13,729 votes out of nearly nine million ballots cast and the alleged fraud.

Losing control of Istanbul deprived the AKP of its historical bastion, in a city Mr. Erdogan ran from 1994 to 1998. It also cut off the party from a well-honed system of political patronage based on a network of charities and social-welfare associations financed with donations from the city and large corporations.

Allowing Mr. Imamoglu to take control of a city of 16 million people, with a $4 billion annual budget and a staff of 82,000, risked spawning a powerful rival for the next presidential election, in 2023, said Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute think tank.

“It was too big for Mr. Erdogan to lose,” Mr. Cagaptay said.

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Suresh
Suresh
4 years ago

He is a Jihadi crook with crooked officials/media on his side.

Crooks and pro-jihadi criminals all around. In America too !

CNN and MSM canonises this pro-jihadi/pro-illegal immigration RINO while Egyptian media expose him for being Leading supporter of Muslim Brotherhood in America and Middle east https://tinyurl.com/y9hk3dpk

Its absurd and farcical how MSM Lies and brainwashes American citizens

Mark Steiner
Mark Steiner
4 years ago
Reply to  Suresh

Indeed. Scripture in II Peter 3 details how people would be “willingly ignorant” of issues/developments in the times in which we are now living. In America, people know more about Hollywood, Howard Stern, Jimmy Kimmel, the Kentucky Derby and a new royal baby than the danger Erdogan presents and has presented.

felix1999
felix1999
4 years ago
Reply to  Mark Steiner

I was just thinking about that earlier today.
I’d bet most people can’t list the Ten Commandments.
Muslims aren’t stopping us from knowing that. You can only blame so much on Islam…

Mark Steiner
Mark Steiner
4 years ago
Reply to  felix1999

True and indeed Felix. The trouble began when the Church renounced the Bible and threw the Object of worship out of churches, replacing these with popular Christianity and the vain commandments/philosophies of men. After that came compromise (getting along), and you know the rest of the story

MuhamMUDTheFakeProphet
MuhamMUDTheFakeProphet
4 years ago
Reply to  felix1999

I could only think of 5 of them off-hand.

Lestari
Lestari
4 years ago
Reply to  Mark Steiner

– ” UglyDolls ” – 2019
if you want to see the best movie here is available !?
click here: worldplatinum9.blogspot.com

MuhamMUDTheFakeProphet
MuhamMUDTheFakeProphet
4 years ago
Reply to  Lestari

Do you have copy of this movie?
comment image

aebe
aebe
4 years ago
Reply to  Suresh

Erdogan had people attacked right here in America, and got away with it. The msm said not a word.

felix1999
felix1999
4 years ago

This reminds me of BREXIT. The people voted to LEAVE but those in control want to REMAIN.
It’s another example of violating the will of the people. Sure, vote again and again and again till you get the result you want but don’t call yourself a democracy.

MuhamMUDTheFakeProphet
MuhamMUDTheFakeProphet
4 years ago
Reply to  felix1999

LOL, exactly. Although I’m sure subsequent votes will have the thumb of the authoritarian state firmly on the scales. In the case of Turkey though, I couldn’t care less, I already know what the f’ing Turks would do to me for daring to criticise their dumb, deadly, fascist, Jew hating death cult.

Liatris Spicata
Liatris Spicata
4 years ago

Pamela has repeatedly noted that Obama claimed that Turkey was America’s closest ally, or some such twaddle. Obama probably would have liked to take the United States down the same path toward dictatorship that Turkey has been heading.

Turkey today does not subscribe the the values on which the USA was founded and on which our republic flourished (despite high profile Democrats’ claims that “America was never great”).

Bonnie Pupowner
Bonnie Pupowner
4 years ago

Its already a dictatorship
He’s done a number on the military who were opposed to him

joe shmoe
joe shmoe
4 years ago

the dems could try this tactic

felix1999
felix1999
4 years ago
Reply to  joe shmoe

They have been with Trump. They cheat to win in elections but with Trump they under estimated the cheating needed to win. Trump was supposed to implode and lose.comment image

aebe
aebe
4 years ago

Seems as though the future of Turkey could hang on these elections. If Erdogan wins again, how many people in Constantinople alone would rise up against him?

Validate your 2nd Amendment Rights and Carry!

MuhamMUDTheFakeProphet
MuhamMUDTheFakeProphet
4 years ago
Reply to  aebe

There are very, very, very few non-muslims left in Turkey, less than 0.2% of the population is anything but muslum — a common demographic statistic across the muslum world.

aebe
aebe
4 years ago

I was thinking of folks not wanting a return to the third world.

Stephen Honig
Stephen Honig
4 years ago

Two fking Muslim lovebirds!

Roma Mikhasev
Roma Mikhasev
4 years ago

ordinary islam

LeslieFish
LeslieFish
4 years ago

It’s time to break all connections between NATO and Turkey.

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