Turkish municipal elections: Erdogan is taken aback by the opposition's historic win

    Turkish municipal elections: Erdogan is taken aback by                             the opposition's historic win 

        The biggest opposition party in Turkey has declared significant electoral wins in Istanbul and Ankara.

Less than a year after declaring his candidature for a third term as president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan had planned to retake control of the cities. The results are a serious setback for him.

In Istanbul, where he was born and raised, he led the winning campaign to become mayor.

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However, the secular opposition CHP secured a second victory thanks to Ekrem Imamoglu, who initially took home the city in 2019.

Although Mr. Erdogan had promised a new era for Turkey's almost 16 million-person megacity, the current mayor of Istanbul was expected to take home more than 50% of the vote, more than ten points ahead of the AK Party nominee for president.

Additionally, this marked the first time that Mr. Erdogan's party had lost nationwide in the polls since he took office 21 years ago.

Mansur Yavas, the opposition mayor of Ankara, led his challenger by such a wide margin (59%), that he declared victory before half the votes were counted. Supporters honked their cars, waved flags, and blocked all of the city's major thoroughfares.

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Notably, the CHP was also expected to win in several other major Turkish cities, such as Adana, Antalya resort, and Izmir and Bursa.

Although the 70-year-old president admitted that the results of the election did not go as he had planned, he told supporters in Ankara that it would be "not an end for us but rather a turning point".

Reuters, Istanbul, March 31 - In a nationwide local vote on Sunday, Turks delivered President Tayyip Erdogan and his party their heaviest electoral setback, reinforcing Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu as the president's main opponent and reaffirming the opposition's political power.

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The Republican People's Party (CHP) of Imamoglu retained Ankara and gained 15 additional mayoral seats across the country as of the majority of the votes being counted. Imamoglu was leading by ten percentage points in the mayoral contest in Istanbul, the largest city in Turkey.

On the other hand, the outcome was highly favourable for CHP chairman Ozgur Ozel, who applauded voters for choosing to alter Turkey's political landscape in a historic referendum, saying, "They want to open the door to a new political climate in our country."

In one of Istanbul's oldest neighbourhoods, Sarachane, large crowds gathered in front of the town hall.

They brandished Turkish flags and banners with the image of Ekrem Imamoglu and the poster of Turkey's founding father, Kemal Ataturk, hanging from the walls of the local government building.

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"I can say that our citizens' trust and faith in us has been rewarded," stated Imamoglu.

He and Mansur Yavas are thought to be viable contenders for the 2028 presidential election.

"Everything will be fine," Imamoglu's followers sang while dancing in Sarachane, one of Istanbul's oldest neighbourhoods, to the sounds of drums and clarinets.

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