Erdogan faces setback in Turkish local elections

Preliminary results also showed the opposition narrowly ahead of the President’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Istanbul, the country’s largest city.The results, if confirmed, will be a blow to Erdogan, who has dominated Turkish politics since becoming Prime Minister in 2003.In Ankara, the opposition People’s Republican Party (CHP) won more than 50 percent of votes while the AKP trailed on around 47 percent, state news agency Anadolu said. It is the first time in 25 years that the Islamist party has lost its grip on the capital.In Istanbul, the result was too close to call on Monday. Turkey’s Supreme Election Council put the CHP on 4,159,650 votes, narrowly ahead of the AKP’s 4,131,671. It said that the results from 84 ballot boxes had not yet been declared due to objections. Both parties claimed victory in Istanbul, Anadolu reported.Across the country, the President’s AKP party, in alliance with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), held 51.8 percent of the overall vote, while the opposition alliance took 37.6 percent, according to preliminary results reported by Anadolu. While Erdogan was not running, he was the face of AKP’s campaign and held rallies across Turkey for weeks. He described Sunday’s votes for mayors and municipal bodies as a matter of national “survival.” According to Anadolu, millions turned out to vote.The result in Istanbul has particular resonance: Erdogan launched his political career there, serving as mayor in the 1990s. Erdogan transformed the nation since his ascent to power in 2003, implementing policies that encouraged economic growth, and challenging Turkey’s secular foundations by bringing Islamic conservatism into to public life.But after a failed military coup in 2016, tens of thousands of people — many of them his critics — were arrested and public institutions gutted. In 2017 he gained sweeping new powers in a narrowly won referendum that was widely condemned as a power grab.