Rising Turkish Political Star Pulls off Istanbul Upset

[Valin]

Asharq Al-Awsat

Apr. 1 2019

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's AKP party appeared so sure of winning Istanbul in Sunday's election that posters of its candidate thanking the city were plastered on walls early Monday.

Instead, Ekrem Imamoglu, a soft-spoken opposition figure, appears to have pulled off a shock win over AKP powerhouse candidate, former premier Binali Yildirim, to end the ruling party's long reign over Turkey's largest city.

Erdogan's AKP suffered a major upset in the Sunday ballot after results showed they had lost not only the capital Ankara and also the country's economic hub Istanbul, reported AFP.

Imamoglu was leading by nearly 28,000 votes with most ballots counted, Supreme Election Board (YSK) chairman Sadi Guven said on Monday.

Imamoglu's rise gives hope to a younger generation of politicians from the Republican People's Party (CHP), Turkey's secular party, as it challenges more than a decade and half of AKP in power.

(Snip)