High turnout in Turkey, according to the Ankara Election Commission, for the local elections which took place today in 81 provinces. The polls closed at 5pm and according to what emerges from the preliminary results, the ruling AKP party of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan seems destined to suffer a setback in Turkey against the main opposition party, the secular Republican People's Party (CHP .
The local elections, in fact, see the opposition mayors of Istanbul and Ankara have a clear advantage Ekrem Imamoglu (mayor of Istanbul since 2019) and Mansur Yavas (mayor of Ankara since 2019) defeat Erdogan-backed candidates Murat Kurum and Turgut Altinok respectively. With almost 75% of the ballots counted, Imamoglu, reports the Turkish TV NTV, is leading Istanbul with 50.4% of the votes while Kurum stands at 40.8%. TO Ankarawith 51% of the votes counted, Yavas stands at 58.9% against 33.14% for Altinok.
Overall, with 60.34% of the ballots already counted, the CHP would obtain 37.46% of the votes against 36.54% for the AKP and would clearly prevail in the main cities of the country such as Istanbul, Ankara or Izmir.
TO Izmir, the third city in the country, Cemil Tugay (CHP) obtained the highest number of votes, 48.29%. He is ahead of Hamza Dag, of the AKP, who remains at 37.03% of the votes with 72.28% of the votes counted.
TO Diyarbakir, the historic capital of Turkish Kurdistan, the candidate of the People's Party for Equality and Democracy (Dem), Ayse Serra Bucak Küçük, was the most voted candidate with 64.47%. The second option was Mehmet Halis (AKP, 16.73%), with 75% of the votes counted.
The Anadolu news agency recalled that 61.4 million voters were called to the polls, of which 1.32 million voted for the first time.
Clashes during the vote, one dead and 11 injured
A one person died and eleven were injured in clashes with guns, sticks and stones during voting operations in the rural district of Agaclidere in Diyarbakir, in the southeast of Türkiye at the polls today. The local media reported it.
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