A surprise set of results has given Turkey’s main opposition party a major boost and enhanced the prospects of democratic renewal
Less than a year ago, Turkey’s main opposition parties were in a slough of despond. Defying their predictions, the country’s authoritarian leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, comfortably won a third term in presidential elections held last spring. At the same time, his Justice and Development party (AKP) emerged more powerful from a parliamentary poll, despite the economy tanking and dissatisfaction at the government’s response to the worst earthquake for decades. Years of clientelism, culture wars and overwhelming media dominance appeared to have rendered Mr Erdoğan’s strongman politics all but unassailable at national level.
Small wonder then, that a spectacular and unanticipated turnaround at Sunday’s local elections prompted wild celebrations into the early hours. In Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city, the incumbent mayor, Ekrem Imamoğlu, trounced Mr Erdoğan’s candidate. Mr Imamoğlu’s Republican People’s party (CHP) also pulled off a clean sweep of other major cities, winning by a landslide in the capital, Ankara, and easily in Izmir. More suprisingly, the CHP managed to chalk up some victories in the conservative towns and villages that make up Mr Erdoğan’s electoral heartland in Anatolia, and near the Black Sea. Gains in those regions for the Islamic far‑right New Welfare party (YRP), at the AKP’s expense, added to the president’s misery.
