Sadi Güven, the head of the Supreme Electoral Council, recently announced that the CHP candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu is the leading candidate in the municipality election for Istanbul. According to the Council, İmamoğlu wins 4,157,505 votes whereas the AKP candidate Binali Yıldırım wins 4,130,190.
İmamoğlu was formerly a member of the central-right-wing Motherland Party (ANAP). He was elected as the head of CHP Beylikdüzü district branch. In 2014, he was elected as the mayor of Beylikdüzü, İstanbul.
These numbers of votes mean İmamoğlu wins 48.80% of the overall votes whereas Yıldırım receives 48.48% of the overall votes, and the difference between the two candidates is roughly equal to 28,000. Güven also announces that there were objections for 84 ballot boxes.
The election night on March 31st was fierce between İmamoğlu and Yıldırım. Before today's announcements, Yıldırım declared that he won the Istanbul municipality and thanked the people of Istanbul for handing in the duty to the AKP.
İmamoğlu was determined and rejected Yıldırım’s claim. İmamoğlu called the Supreme Electoral Council to announce the official results. In the early hours of April 1st, the CHP supporters celebrated İmamoğlu by chanting on the streets of Istanbul.
The state-run news agency Anadolu Ajansı controversially announced the results of the last general and local elections before the announcement of the Supreme Electoral Council. Since other local and nationwide news agencies borrow the electoral results from Anadolu Ajansı (AA), the AA was often criticized for having the AKP candidates being elected as fait accompli.
Nonetheless, the DHA news agency for the first time announced the electoral numbers counted different than the AA. According to the DHA, 99.68% of the ballot boxes were opened and İmamoğlu won 4,157,237 (48.80%) whereas Yıldırım won 4,130,049 (48.48%). The AA had no other option but to concede.
