Erdogan congratulates CHP’s Istanbul mayoral candidate

By Nilay Kar Onum

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkish president on Sunday congratulated the opposition’s mayoral candidate Ekrem Imamoglu, as unofficial results showed a convincing win for the latter in the election rerun in Istanbul.

“The national will has appeared once again today. I congratulate Ekrem Imamoglu, who has won the election, according to unofficial results,” Erdogan said in a Twitter post.

According to unofficial results, with 99.37% of ballot boxes opened, CHP's Imamoglu got 54.03% of the votes, while AK Party's Yildirim received 45.04% as of 8.00 p.m. local time (1700GMT).

Imamoglu and Binali Yildirim of the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party vied to run the metropolitan municipality of Turkey's most populous city after a previous vote on March 31 was annulled by the country's top election council last month.