Turkey's Supreme Board of Elections made its decision regarding the elections for Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Monday in which it decided to cancel and renew the vote that was held on March 31, which saw the candidate of the opposition party CHP Ekrem Imamoglu winning the mayoral position.
Ruling party AKP's representative at the electoral board Recep Özel also announced the decision from his twitter account. "Istanbul elections are renewed. Good luck ...," he tweeted.
Özel also said that the country's High Election Board has set June 23 for a re-run of local elections in Istanbul.
The YSK’s 11 judges first met in a meeting with the participation of the representatives of political parties before holding a separate discussion to decide on the Istanbul polls. The AKP and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) filed an extraordinary appeal seeking the cancellation of the Istanbul polls due to what they say were marred by irregularities that resulted in election results to the disadvantage to their candidate, Binali Yıldırım.
The difference in votes between the two was less than 14,000. The main opposition Republican People's Party’s (CHP) İmamoğlu assumed his job as mayor of Istanbul after his mandate was given to him on April 17.
The AKP and the MHP argued that some 40,000 ineligible voters participated in the elections and the appointments of many polling station officials were done against regulations.
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