(UTV|COLOMBO) – Istanbul is currently a city of parallel realities.
In daily press conferences – and on his Twitter biography – Ekrem Imamoglu of the opposition CHP party says he’s the new mayor.
Preliminary results from the election board show he won the local election here last weekend by some 25,000 votes.
But across the city the ruling AK Party has put up victory posters, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and candidate Binali Yildirim thanking Istanbul for the win.
The government has challenged the Istanbul results and ordered recounts.
Although it won most votes across Turkey, it lost the capital, Ankara, and Izmir. The AKP is also contesting the CHP victory in Ankara.
President Erdogan, it seems, is not ready to let go of Istanbul – Turkey’s economic powerhouse and his home city, which he himself once ran as mayor.
Courtesy: BBC
[alert color=”faebcc” icon=”fa-commenting”]Keeping up to date with breaking news while you are on the move is now simple with UTV Alerts [textmarker color=”8a6d3b”]Type REG UTV and send to 77000[/textmarker] on your Dialog, Airtel, or Hutch mobile connection[/alert]