Turkish election board rules in favor of partial Istanbul recount

Turkey’s High Election Board ruled on Wednesday in favor of a recount in eight of Istanbul’s 39 districts after President Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party (AKP) appealed results across the city.

Speaking to reporters in Ankara, Guven said that the recount would mostly focus on invalid votes, adding that this was not an unprecedented decision. Appeals to the YSK were still ongoing, he said.

The AKP filed challenges to results throughout the two cities after saying it would use its right to object to the results where there were voting irregularities, adding that errors at the ballots had affected the outcome.

The main opposition, which had earned a narrow victory over the AKP according to initial results, had appealed the recount, prompting the YSK to halt them late on Tuesday.

President Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party submitted objections to election results in all districts of Turkey’s commercial hub Istanbul and capital Ankara as initial results showed it was on course to lose control of both cities.

The election setback may complicate Erdogan’s efforts to combat the economy’s slide into recession.

In Istanbul, the mayoral candidate of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), Ekrem Imamoglu, and his AKP rival, ex-prime minister Binali Yildirim, both said on Monday Imamoglu was around 25,000 votes ahead. Istanbul’s population is 15 million, according to official data.