From the Liveblog of
Sunday, June 23, 2019
Polls close in Istanbul mayoral election rerun
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GooglePolls close in Istanbul after voters cast ballots in a rerun mayoral election after a March 31 vote was voided for procedural irregularities.
Opposition candidate Ekrem Imamoglu is seeking to repeat his win from 12 weeks earlier to become the city’s first mayor in 25 years who is not from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party or its Islamist-rooted predecessor.
The other candidate in today’s election is former Turkish prime minister Binali Yildirim, who received support from Erdogan at campaign rallies.
The Turkish leader was mayor of Istanbul, the country’s largest city, during the 1990s.
The election board’s decision to cancel the March election after the governing party challenged it polarized Turks, who attended campaign rallies in large numbers.
The Times of Israel Community.