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Middle East

Turkey's opposition worries as Istanbul votes go to recount

Associated Press
Published | Updated
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    Backdropped by a poster of Kemal Kilicdaroglu, left, the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader, and modern Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, right, Ekrem Imamoglu, the CHP's mayoral candidate in Istanbul, poses for The Associated Press following an interview in Istanbul, Thursday, April 4, 2019. Imamoglu said he's confident that the result of a recount of votes in the city will confirm his victory and has renewed an appeal to Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to help end the standoff. Imamoglu won the tight race for Istanbul in Sunday's local elections in a major upset for Erdogan, who rose to power as the mayor of the city of 15 million and has said that whoever wins Istanbul wins to whole of Turkey. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

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    Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left, in a first public appearance after Sunday elections in Istanbul, Thursday, April 4, 2019, listens as he visits an uncompleted museum dedicated to the July 15, 2015 coup attempt. Erdogan's ruling party is appealing the results of the local elections in Istanbul, where the opposition has a razor-thin lead. (Presidential Press Service via AP, Pool)

ISTANBUL – The mood among opposition supporters in Turkey's biggest city is one of jubilation but also worry — fear that their win in Istanbul's mayoral race could be overturned in a recount taking place after the ruling party challenged the election results.

In an unexpected setback to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the opposition snatched away his ruling party's quarter-century-old stronghold of Ankara, the capital, in Turkey's local election last Sunday. The opposition also won a tight race in Istanbul, the country's financial and cultural capital, where Erdogan himself rose to power as mayor in 1994.

The opposition made these gains despite an election that international observers say was not fair. Turkish media covered Erdogan's constant campaign appearances on behalf of his party but did not give remotely similar coverage to opposition candidates.