Turkey gave an impassive first reaction on Sunday to Joe Biden’s presidential win, with Vice President Fuat Oktay saying it would not change relations between the old allies although Ankara will keep pressing Washington on Syria and other policy differences.

Turkey stands to lose more than most other countries if Joe Biden is elected president since he is expected to toughen the U.S. stance against President Tayyip Erdogan’s foreign military interventions and closer cooperation with Russia.

Another major stumbling block is Washington’s refusal to extradite U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara says orchestrated a failed coup in 2016.

Speaking at an interview with broadcaster Kanal 7, Oktay said that while the friendship between President Tayyip Erdogan and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump had helped the countries tackle several of their issues, communications channels between Ankara and Washington would operate as before.

“Nothing will change for Turkey,” Oktay said. “The channels of communication will work as before, but of course there will be a transition period,” he said, adding Ankara would closely monitor Biden’s foreign policy approach.

He said Turkey would press the next U.S. administration to abandon support for Kurdish militant groups in Syria, and to extradite Gulen.

“We experienced a coup attempt. The person who carried this out is in the United States. There is nothing more natural than asking for his extradition,” Oktay said. “This is a process that began earlier and it will continue with this administration. We will increasingly continue our pressure,” he said.

“We hope that the United States does not continue working with a terrorist organization or organizations,” he said, adding that Turkey would not refrain from taking action in Syria again if necessary.

Another lingering issue between the allies has been Turkey’s purchase of Russian missile defense systems, for which Ankara is facing U.S. sanctions. Trump’s administration has so far avoided imposing sanctions, and Oktay said on Sunday that Ankara hoped Biden’s administration would also refrain from unilateral steps.

“The new administration’s approach will surely affect us and interest us. We are following this very closely. Our expectation is that they refrain from unilateral approaches,” he said.

Erdogan has not yet commented on Biden’s victory.

Analysts say Turkey-U.S. ties could suffer under a Biden presidency. The lira <TRYTOM=D3>, which is already trading at a record low against the dollar, could come under more pressure.

Reuters

Biden wins presidential race in deeply divided United States

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The Turkish lira touched a fresh record low on Tuesday ahead of a U.S. election that could strain bilateral ties, weakening after data showed annual inflation near 12% despite central bank moves to tighten policy.

The lira <TRYTOM=D3> – the worst performer in emerging markets this year – weakened as much as 0.5% to 8.4850 against the dollar from Monday’s close of 8.4400.

The currency is down 30% so far this year on concerns about possible Western sanctions against Turkey, depleted reserves, double-digit inflation, and monetary independence.

Analysts say relations between Ankara and Washington could be further strained if Joe Biden, the Democratic candidate, and front-runner, wins the U.S. presidential election on Tuesday.

“If you look at the lira it is not expensive, but there is a policy credibility issue,” said Aberdeen Standard Investments portfolio manager Viktor Szabo. “They are running up against a lack of reserves – they really have their backs against the wall.”

The central bank unexpectedly held its policy rate steady last month at 10.25%, while raising the top limit of its rates corridor to 14.75% to retain flexibility.

“The way they are tightening is not credible. They are widening the corridor so they can shift rates up, but it also means they likely will bring them down again,” said Szabo.

On Tuesday the central bank raised the lira interest rate in the swap market for dollars and gold to 13.25% from 11.75%. A day earlier it announced it was reduced to zero the borrowing limits at its interbank money market.

The bank’s so-called backdoor steps to tighten liquidity and fund the market through a higher rate have pulled the average cost of funding <CBTWACF=> up to 13.45% as of Monday.

High inflation has also been an important factor in pressuring the lira. Data on Tuesday showed consumer price inflation rose to 11.89% year-on-year in October, in line with a poll forecast, maintaining pressure for tight monetary policy.

Reuters

Turkish lira hits fresh record low against dollar

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Americans cast votes on Tuesday in the bitterly contested presidential race between incumbent Donald Trump and challenger Joe Biden after a tumultuous four years under the businessman-turned-politician that have left the United States as deeply divided as at any time in recent history.

Voters lined up at polling places around the country casting ballots amid a coronavirus pandemic that has turned everyday life upside down. Biden, the Democratic former vice president who has spent a half-century in public life, has held a strong and consistent lead in national opinion polls over the Republican president.

But Trump is close enough in several election battlegrounds states that he could piece together the 270 state-by-state Electoral College votes needed to win the election.

Trump is hoping to repeat the type of upset he pulled off in 2016 when he defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton despite losing the national popular vote by about 3 million ballots. Trump is aiming to avoid becoming the first incumbent U.S. president to lose a re-election bid since George H.W. Bush in 1992.

It is possible that it could be days before the result is known, especially if legal challenges focused on ballots sent by mail are accepted in the event of a tight race.

There was a sense of anxiety among voters and concern about possible unrest after a campaign with heated rhetoric. There were buildings boarded up in anticipation of possible protests, including in Washington and New York City. A new fence was erected around the White House.

Polls opened in some Eastern states at 6 a.m. EST (1100 GMT). The most closely watched results will start to trickle in after 7 p.m. EST (2400 GMT) when polls close in states such as Georgia.

Biden made another appearance on Tuesday morning in the pivotal state of Pennsylvania. Speaking to supporters using a bullhorn in Scranton, the city where he was born, Biden returned to some of his familiar campaign themes, promising to unite Americans and “restore basic decency and honor to the White House.”

Appearing on Fox News on Tuesday morning, Trump said the crowds he saw on Monday during his frenetic last day of campaigning gave him confidence that he would prevail.

“We have crowds that nobody’s ever had before,” said Trump, who has been criticized by Democrats for holding packed rallies in defiance of social-distancing recommendations during the pandemic. “I think that translates into a lot of votes.”

The voting caps a campaign dominated by a pandemic that has killed more than 231,000 Americans and put of people millions out of work. The country this year also was shaken by protests against racism and police brutality.

Biden, who has framed the contest as a referendum on Trump’s handling of the pandemic, promised a renewed effort to combat the public health crisis, fix the economy, and bridge America’s political divide.

Trump has downplayed the pandemic, saying the country is “rounding the corner” even as numerous states set single-day records of new infections in the final days of the campaign.

More than 99 million Americans voted early either in person or by mail, motivated not only by concerns about waiting in lines on Election Day amid the pandemic but also by extraordinary levels of enthusiasm after a polarizing campaign.

The record-shattering total is nearing three-quarters of the total 2016 vote, according to the U.S. Elections Project at the University of Florida. Experts predict the vote could reach 160 million, exceeding the 138 million ballots cast in 2016.

While there were long lines in some places, in many states lines were shorter, perhaps a reflection of the massive early vote.

In McConnellsburg, Pennsylvania, about a dozen voters lined up, bundled in jackets and hats on an unseasonably chilly morning.

“He’s a bit of a jerk, and I appreciate that,” Martin Seylar, a 45-year-old welder who had just finished his shift, said of Trump, his preferred candidate. “He doesn’t get everything that he says done, but the way I see it is he’s trying, versus where everybody else blows smoke at us.”

In Detroit, Republican voter Nick Edwards, 26, cast a ballot for Biden but voted for Republican candidates for Congress.

“Honestly, decency in the White House,” Edwards said when asked about his main concern. “When someone leads the party, they need to hold those values, as well. I don’t think Trump encompasses that.”

Some crucial states, such as Florida, begin counting absentee ballots ahead of Election Day and could deliver results relatively quickly on Tuesday night. Others including Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin are barred from processing the vast majority of mail ballots until Election Day, raising the possibility of a prolonged vote count that could stretch for several days.

U.S. stocks opened higher on Tuesday, as investors wagered that Biden would prevail and usher in fresh stimulus spending.

CONTROL OF CONGRESS AT STAKE

Voters on Tuesday will also decide which political party controls the U.S. Congress for the next two years, with Democrats pushing to recapture a Senate majority and expected to retain their control of the House of Representatives.

Trump, 74, is seeking another four years in office after a chaotic first term marked by the coronavirus crisis, an economy battered by pandemic shutdowns, an impeachment drama, inquiries into Russian election interference, U.S. racial tensions, and contentious immigration policies.

Trump, looking tired and sounding hoarse after days of frenetic campaigning, struck a decidedly less belligerent tone on Tuesday than he did on the trail over the weekend. He was expected to spend most of Tuesday at the White House, where an election night party is planned for 400 guests, all of whom will be tested for COVID-19.

Biden, 77, is looking to win the presidency after a five-decade political career including eight years as vice president under Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama. He mounted unsuccessful bids for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988 and 2008.

Biden started his day at St. Joseph on the Brandywine, his Roman Catholic church near Wilmington, Delaware, where he spent some time at his son Beau’s grave with Beau’s daughter, Natalie. Beau Biden died of cancer at age 46 in 2015.

The two candidates have spent the final days barnstorming half a dozen battleground states, with Pennsylvania emerging as perhaps the most hotly contested. Biden will have made at least nine campaign stops in Pennsylvania between Sunday and Tuesday.

Biden’s polling lead has forced Trump to play defense; almost every competitive state was carried by him in 2016.

Reuters

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a good autocrat who cannot be kept down and has decided that voters want more of the same, despite losing the latest election and an economic crisis, Bloomberg Opinion Editor Bobby Ghosh said on Thursday.

Ghosh said in a Bloomberg column that Erdogan first seemed softened after the second defeat in the Istanbul mayoral election. He said this was displayed when he told  lawmakers of his Justice and Development Party (AKP) that they did “not have the luxury of turning a deaf ear and ignoring the messages given by the people.”

He, however, later changed his mind, deciding that Turks want more of the same, according to Ghosh.

The editor further said Erdogan’s dismissal of the governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (TCMB), Murat Cetinkaya last week for refusing to cut interest rates which was his “eccentric theory” to help inflation fall.

He suggested that the newly appointed governor, Murat Uysal, will have to do what Erdogan orders in order to keep the job. He said this would be so even if the order would yield to “a hammering for the lira and to deepen the economic crisis” as was the case in the economic collapses in Latin American countries.

The columnist also emphasized a possible devastation for the Turkish economy to be triggered by  US sanctions over Turkey’s decision to buy Russian S-400 missile-defense systems. He also referred to a row between the US and Turkey over jailed American Pastor Andrew Brunson which last year prompted a severe sell-off of the Turkish lira that pushed it to an all-time low against the US dollar. This led to Turkey to experience its second economic recession under  Erdogan’s rule.

Erdogan believes Turkey will not be subjected to  US sanctions, going as far as  providing assurance from US President Donald Trump at the G20 Summit in Osaka.

Ghosh however, said Trump did not specifically eliminate the possibility of sanctions in his speech and the State Department has since then repeated its threat to punish Turkey if it purchases the S-400s.

Ghosh said “Erdogan’s weakened aura of invincibility” following the AKP’s loss in the Istanbul election  encouraged critics within the AKP.

Last week Ali Babacan, former economy minister announced his resignation from AKP over “deep differences” with the party’s direction saying that Turkey needed a new vision.

Once a close ally to Erdogan and an AKP co-founder, Babacan this year plans to form a rival political party together with Turkey’s former President Abdullah Gul, according to Turkish political circles.

AKP’s former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is also on the same way after falling out with Erdogan in 2016 and criticized AKP policies a week after the Istanbul election.

Ghosh claimed that Babacan’s defection was potentially the most damaging for Erdogan since he steered the country out of an economic crisis during the 2002-2007 period and he was therefore a credible figure.

Babacan, as well as Davutoglu was especially critical of last year’s decision by Erdogan to appoint  his son-in-law, Berat Albayrak, as treasury and finance minister.

“That appointment rattled investors’ confidence in Erdogan’s management of the economy,” said Ghosh.

Former key Erdogan ally quits Turkey’s ruling party 

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Following the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) second loss in the Istanbul re-run elections, a former prime minister from the party slammed his former party and its leader, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

A news report by Gazete Duvar on Sunday said Ahmet Davutoglu also signaled the formation of a new party.

Davutoglu became prime minister in 2014 courtesy of Erdogan and had to resign when he fell out with Erdogan in 2016. He raised his voice against his former leader and the AKP after the opposition’s sweeping victory in Istanbul’s mayoral rerun election on June 23.

Ekrem Imamoglu from Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) won the June 23 mayoral rerun with greater margin due to the public’s reaction to the annulment of the March 31 vote by the Supreme Electoral Council (YSK), which was a major setback for Erdogan.

The former PM criticized AKP on many fronts, including election strategy, new presidential system, economic policies, and judiciary system.

“If we lose an election we first lost by 13,000 votes again by 800,000 votes, as was the case in Istanbul, the one responsible for this is not a prime minister who delivered a clear parliamentary majority [in last year’s general election], but rather those who have caused a serious slide in actions, rhetoric, morals, and politics,” Davutoglu said at an event in the eastern province of Elazig on Saturday.

Davutoglu further claimed Erdogan contacted the jailed leader and founder of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Abdullah Ocalan to make Kurds stay neutral in Istanbul’s June 23 election, so that CHP’s Imamoglu would lose the vote.

“Saying the elections are valid even if (won) by one vote and then changing your stance; talking about a matter of survival in one election and labeling anyone who thinks otherwise a terrorist but then getting in touch with Imrali [Ocalan] in the next vote is a detachment from the public conscience,” said Davutoglu, referring to Erdogan’s contrasting election strategy that labelled the opposition “terrorist” during the March 31 poll.

Turkey’s pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) did not nominate any candidate in the March 31 in Istanbul to back Imamoglu against Erdogan’s AKP. Despite Ocalan’s call for neutrality just before the election, the HDP kept its stance during the June 23 poll, contributing to the opposition’s win.

The new presidential system gave Erdogan sweeping new powers was also at the center of Davutoglu’s criticism.

“The state structure is not built on the views of individuals and political parties. The system has been changed from a crooked parliamentary system into another crooked so-called presidential system,” Davutoglu lashed out.

The solution to this unfavorable stance according to the former MP was to change the status, instead of changing duties. He referred to the rumors of a reshuffle in the council of the ministers after AKP’s vote defeat in Istanbul.

Davutoglu also said a law related to transparency in politics should be immediately enacted. “Our country is suffering from a severe economic crisis, as was the case in 2008. Then, there were people in charge of the country’s economy who mastered economics. We cannot get out of this crisis with the mentality of knowing best for everything, belittling, and thinking teamwork is just bringing together your inner circle,” Davutoglu said, targeting Erdogan’s son-in-law Berat Albayrak who was appointed Turkey’s finance minister last year.

According to Davutoglu, the AKP is not a party of one person, family or group alone. The state works and family relations must absolutely be separated. There must be no first-degree relatives of the politicians in the government.

The former AKP senior argued justice in the country has been so damaged people have lost confidence in it. “The time has come to have a common attitude against this situation. Today is not the time to be silent. We need a new understanding of politics,” he vowed.

Davutoglu, former Turkish President Abdullah Gul and former Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan have been a subject of rumors of a formation of a new party. The rumor has been circulating for a year now.

However, it took time for them to speak loudly against Erdogan and his AKP until the March 31 local elections which became a stinging blow to the Erdogan regime.

First, Davutoglu published a manifesto on April 22 through his Facebook account in which he openly criticized his former boss, Erdogan. Following the YSK’s ruling on the repeating of Istanbul mayoral election on May 6 at the AKP’s request, Gul also started criticizing.

The trio has not been moving together. Gul-Babacan’s front, which is expected to form a rival political party this fall has its own direction as they reportedly do not get along with Davutoglu.

Some political analysts have doubts about the public backing either of the two moves as they stayed silent against Erdogan’s acts until recently.

Gul-Babacan to launch new party in autumn -Davutoglu’s advisor

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Turkey’s main opposition CHP lead with 54.01% of votes versus 45.10% for President Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party in Istanbul’s re-run mayoral election, with nearly 99% of the ballots opened, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported on Sunday.

Istanbulites went to polls in the rerun of the mayoral elections on June 23.

March 31 local elections saw the city changed hands for the first time in 25 years, however, the Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) annulled the opposition candidate Ekrem Imamoglu’s narrow victory, ruling for a redo of the mayoral race.

Millions in Istanbul went to ballot boxes to cast their votes starting from 8:00 AM local time. At 31,342 ballot boxes across the commercial capital of Turkey, the voting process ended at 5:00 PM local time, consequently, the vote count began.

After YSK lifted the broadcast ban on 7:15 PM local time, the state-run Anadolu Agency shared the results with 97 percent of the votes counted. The Republican People’s Party (CHP) candidate garnered 53,8 percent of the vote while his opponent the AK Party’s Binali Yildirim managed to get 45,2 percent of the votes cast, according to the unofficial results.

Binali Yildirim gave a speech after the initial results, acknowledging his opponent’s win. “I congratulate Mr. Imamoglu. I hope he can serve this city well in the new term,” said Yildirim.

Imamoglu’s alleged insult could bar him from Istanbul mayoralty – Erdogan

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Ekrem Imamoglu, the main opposition candidate for Istanbul mayor who was ousted from office soon after winning March 31 mayoral election, appears to have come out on top of the government-backed candidate Binali Yildirim in a highly-anticipated live debate, Reuters reported citing a pollster on Monday.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP)’s Yildirim on Sunday faced the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP)’s Imamoglu in the first debate of its kind in Turkey in nearly two decades.

According to Reuters, Imamoglu, who won the initial vote on March 31 but was made to quit his office when his victory was annulled, bested Yildirim in the rare TV debate taking the lead ahead of a June 23 re-vote.

Losing Istanbul would be a massive symbolic shock and a broader sign of decreasing support for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his AKP government in the city where he started his political career as a mayor in the 1990s.

Mak Danismanlik, a polling firm, found in a poll of 33,000 city residents that 46 percent of the respondents said Imamoglu was more successful than his rival, versus 44 percent for Yildirim.

When asked which candidate they will support in the upcoming re-run, 42,5 percent of the participants stated they will cast their votes for Yildirim, while 44 percent indicated that they will vote for Imamoglu.

Mehmet Ali Kulat, the owner of Mak Danismanlik, spoke to Reuters and commented on the 1.5 percentage points difference between the candidates.

“Imamoglu talked more about what he would do, while Yildirim focused more on what he had already done. Usually, those who offer a future projection tend to do better in elections,” he explained.

The firm also found that the opposition candidate was likely to get the votes of 65 percent of those who did not go to the ballot box in March elections.

Imamoglu described the TV debate, in an interview with Reuters, as a “boost.”

“We are at a very good point…I am very clear in my opinion that after last night there isn’t at all a drop in support,” he said, adding he expects an even larger margin of victory this coming Sunday.

The performance of Turkey’s former prime minister Yildirim, whose last name means “lightning” in English, was found to be superior by pro-government columnists and a hashtag translated as “lightning strikes” was spread on Twitter suggesting that he made a mark.

Akademetre, a company for research and strategic planning, also found based on a phone interview with 1140 respondents that the number of indecisive voters dropped from 12,1 to 7,1 percent with 40 percent of them reaching a decision on who to vote after the debate.

According to the research, 57,9 percent of the participants found Imamoglu’s overall performance during the debate “successful” while only 42,1 percent expressed the same view for AKP’s Yildirim.

The research results also showed that 68 percent of female voters support Imamoglu while the remaining 32 were in favor of Yildirim. It was also indicated that AKP’s candidate is favored by 52 percent of males while the remaining 48 percent backs opposition’s Imamoglu.

In March, Yildirim narrowly lost the Istanbul mayoral race by some 13,000 votes in what was one of the biggest election setbacks for Erdogan since his AKP first came to power in 2002.

Although his political alliance retained a majority of the nationwide vote, it lost control of many major cities that include the capital Ankara.

The High Electoral Board’s decision to repeat mayoral elections in Istanbul, which was given following subsequent appeals by AKP on the matter, has drawn international criticism and raised fears about the corrosion of Turkey’s rule of law.

Istanbul candidates fail to attract swing voters during rare TV debate: analysts

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Old tweets by Canan Kaftancioglu may end up seeing her spending up to 17 years in jail as a Turkish court on Monday accepted an indictment that details various charges against her.

The Istanbul head of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has been investigated since January 2018 after notices from seven people were received.

She gave her testimony regarding the case to the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office on December 12, 2018. Last week, the office finalized the indictment against Kaftancioglu for insulting the Turkish state, the president and public servants, inciting “hatred and enmity”, and “spreading terrorist propaganda”, based mostly on the tweets she posted between 2012 and 2017.

The Istanbul 37th Criminal Court accepted the indictment which seeks a jail term ranging from almost five years to 17 years. The indictment considered one of her tweets as terrorist propaganda as it allegedly quoted a senior member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a Kurdish militant group designated as a terrorist organization by Ankara.

Her another social media post was deemed an insult to the state when she referred to the death of a 14-year-old boy, Berkin Elvan, who was hit in the head by a police tear gas cartridge during Gezi Park protests in Istanbul in 2013. The tweet said at the time: “It’s not a state, it’s a serial killer. Farewell, my Berkin.”

The last week’s indictment quotes Kaftancioglu as saying in a statement to the prosecutor’s office her tweets were within the legal bounds of freedom of expression and criticism. She admitted writing all the tweets included in the indictment, except for one which is related to the “Armenian genocide”, a controversial topic in Turkish history.

There are eight litigants, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who brought the case against CHP’s Istanbul head. The first hearing of the case is scheduled to take place on June 28.

“There could be those who can think they would silence me with the stick they show through the law. My only agenda is to work for Istanbul’s 16 million residents without stopping, without giving a break and getting tired,” Kaftancioglu said on May 23 in response to the indictment.

Some analysts deemed Kaftancioglu the architect of the success in the March 31 Istanbul mayoral elections in which CHP’s candidate Ekrem Imamoglu defeated the candidate of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

The CHP-won elections were annulled by the Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) following AKP’s serial objections, citing irregularities and fraud at the ballots.

A rerun will be held on June 23.

“Insulting the president” is a crime in Turkey

According to the controversial Article 299 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK), “insulting the president” is a crime in Turkey which could result in a four-year prison sentence, and even longer if committed through mass media.

The number of people who have been prosecuted and convicted according to Article 299 has risen rapidly since Erdogan assumed the presidency in 2014, with 66,000 investigations being launched, and 12,305 trials being held.

CHP’s campaigner advises opponents to voice “injustice” in Istanbul re-run

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The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) announced on Friday that they found a repeated “irregularity” relating to the upcoming rerun election in Istanbul, which was the exact reason for the March 31 local poll to be annulled by Turkey’s election authority.

Canan Kaftancioglu, CHP’s Istanbul district executive, claims that her party has detected four ballot box officials in Istanbul’s Beykoz district who, contrary to the law, are not civil servants, an irregularity that served as the basis for the Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) to annul the Istanbul vote results on May 6.

In contradiction, Binali Yildirim, candidate of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Istanbul, defined the repeated irregularity a “normal” situation.

Following CHP’s narrowly-won mayorship on March 31, the YSK decided to rerun the mayoral election in Istanbul on the grounds that some ballot box officials were not public servants, which drew rebuff among dissidents of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

CHP’s Kaftancioglu condemned the YSK members for the replication of the faulty conduct, emphasizing their irresponsibility.

“They [the YSK judges] appointed the ballot box committees [officials]. They annulled the elections, saying those officials were not civil servants. Now, again, they appointed ballot box officials for the June 23 [rerun elections] who are not public servants,” said Kaftancioglu.

The CHP executive added that they had reported the Beykoz irregularity to the District Election Board and that they were monitoring all-district lists of polling officials as Friday was the last day to appeal to the boards. AKP’s Yildirim responded to the query regarding the CHP-detected irregularity, saying, “Well, CHP, appeal [the irregularity] and [make the YSK] correct it.

Previously, the lists of polling officials were not shared with political parties. However, now the YSK provides the parties with lists to correct and prevent past errors, and the parties can change the irregularities. This is a normal situation.”

Yildirim was also questioned about the possibility of a second rerun if it was found, again, that some appointed polling officials were not civil servants.

“There will be no such thing. There is still time to change [the lists for ballot box officials]. They [CHP] object to it. In Istanbul, there are sevenfold more public officials than needed,” Yildirim replied.

No merit in Istanbul election decision says Imamoglu

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A senior from the opposition Felicity Party (SP) lashed out at the mayoral candidate of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) who called for SP supporters to vote in favor of AKP in the upcoming Istanbul poll rerun on June 24, T24 news portal reported on Thursday.

Ali Aktas, an SP executive, criticized Binali Yildirim, Istanbul’s mayoral candidate from AKP, as he said on Wednesday that he believed many SP followers would vote for him [Yildirim] in the rerun election in Istanbul.

“SP people are not for sale, as they have dignity. They will never vote for you [AKP], like you, prior to the March 31 [elections], called them dishonored, pro-terror, and traitors,” Aktas vowed.

Ahead of the previous March 31 local elections, AKP leader and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan repeatedly accused opposition parties of being pro-terror and of being supported by terrorist groups. He used the defamatory statement “alliance of dishonor” to denounce the Nation Alliance, which was formed by opposition parties, including SP, to run in the elections against AKP.

Aktas further claimed that SP people would not consent to the “extortion of election” in Istanbul, referring to the annulment decision of March’s mayoral vote taken by Turkey’s election board on May 6.

The March 31 local Istanbul elections gave victory to Ekrem Imamoglu from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), ending a 25-year rule by AKP and its Islamist predecessors from which SP also comes.

However, following the AKP appeals, the Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) annulled the Istanbul poll, citing a series of irregularities, notably in the appointment of polling station officials.

The YSK’s move drew rebuff among opposition parties. As before, many of them, except for SP, will support Imamoglu. SP will run in the rerun elections with its own candidate, Necdet Gokcinar.

SP a crucial actor in the rerun

Both AKP and SP originated from the “National Vision” ideology created by former Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, the first political leader of modern-day Turkish Islamist.

Once the followers of the ideology, the founders of AKP – Erdogan, former President Abdullah Gul, and Bulent Arinc – left Erbakan and launched AKP in the early 2000s.

As they have the same Islamist roots, both parties will be competing for votes from conservative voters.

The SP candidate won over 103,364 votes in Istanbul on March 31. The SP voters may prove to be crucial in the rerun when considering only 13,000 votes separated CHP’s Imamoglu from AKP’s Yildirim in the previous annulled elections.

AKP members injure three people in attack on newly-elected mayor

The post Islamist opposition senior slams AKP’s Istanbul candidate eyeing to win conservative votes appeared first on IPA NEWS.