Author: Carlotta Gall / Source: New York Times
Yasin Akgul/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
ISTANBUL — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party has lost control of Turkey’s two largest cities, Istanbul and Ankara, a complete tally of local election ballots showed on Tuesday, but the governing party said it would challenge the outcomes.
The loss of Istanbul, the country’s business capital and Mr. Erdogan’s political base, is a particularly sharp setback for a president who has tightened his control of the government and news media, stifled dissent, and, critics contend, manipulated election results.
Results reported on Tuesday by the semiofficial Anadolu news agency showed the opposition candidate for mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, at 48.79 percent, against 48.51 percent for Binali Yildrim, the candidate of Mr. Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, or AKP, with 100 percent of ballots counted.
The results also confirmed the victory of the opposition Republican People’s Party, or C.H.P., in Ankara, the capital. The opposition candidate Mansur Yavas won 50.91 percent of the vote,…
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