İstanbul's Disputed Election: What Happened? What Will Happen Now?

İstanbul, the largest city of Turkey, may have come to an end of an era after the March 31 local elections as a possible win for the opposition would end the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its predecessors' 25-year tenure at the Metropolitan Municipality.

As the drama has been going on since the election night, with AKP candidate Binali Yıldırım making a victory speech and the state-run Anadolu Agency stopping updates as of 11.21 p.m., the opposition candidate has been declared ahead of his rival by the election authorities.

With all the votes counted, the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu is ahead of his AKP rival Binali Yıldırım by 24,408 votes, according to the unofficial results announced by the İstanbul provincial election council yesterday (April 2).

AKP then appealed against the results, claming there are irregularities. Twenty-four thousand votes equal around 0.25 percent of all registered voters in İstanbul, hence the ruling party pinned its hopes on the recounting.

Let's take a look at what happened at the election night, what can happen from now on.

What happened at the election night?

While AKP candidate Yıldırım had been ahead of CHP candidate İmamoğlu by a few points since the beginning of the counting, the latter began to close in as the time passed.

The state-run Anadolu Agency, the sole entity to distribute the results to the media, stopped updating results as of 11.21 p.m. when more than 98 percent of the ballots opened and the difference was less than 0.3 percent.

At around the same time, Yıldırım held a press conference, claiming he won the elections.

Soon afterward, İmamoğlu claimed that he is leading the election by four points, citing the figures of the CHP. He called the AA and the YSK (Supreme Election Council) to "do their duties."

CLICK - Statemens from Parties and Candidates at the Election Night

President and AKP Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan made his "victory speech" after midnight. He pointed to his party's general voting share and claimed that they won the elections.

However, on İstanbul and Ankara, he hinted a possible defeat, saying, "Even if our people gave away the metropolitan municipality, it gave the district municipalities to the AK Party."

The AA's silence drew a rebuff from both İmamoğlu, who held almost a dozen press conferences throughout the night, and from the people on social media.

AA responded to criticism by saying that "the data flow from the field has stopped" and it will begin updating the results again when the data is available to it.

The state-run agency has yet to explain how it obtained data during the counting and why it was not able to do it for 13 hours.

In the morning on April 1, YSK Chair Sadi Güven removed the uncertainty by declaring that İmamoğlu is leading the election by 27,889 votes.

When asked about the AA, he said, "AA is not my client. When the AA reached 90 percent, I had just begun to enter data."

CLICK - AA Declares CHP Ahead in İstanbul After 13-Hour Silence

AKP appeals, media and troll campaign begins

Contrary to past elections, this time it was the AKP, rather than the opposition, who hopefully appeals against the results and claims there are irregularities.

AKP appealed against the results in İstanbul and Ankara yesterday. The party's provincial chairs for the two cities claimed that there are irregularities in the results.

Since İmamoğlu has been declared the leader, a vehement pro-AKP campaign has begun on conventional and social media.

Claims of many duty holders at the polls getting arrested for fraud and the election authorities deciding for a recount circulated on social media, only to be refuted by the Governor of İstanbul and the YSK.

Under the hashtag #hırsızvar (there are thieves), claims were maid that CHP won İstanbul by fraud.

Pro-AKP newspapers also made similar claims in today's issues. On their headlines, the Star said, "Who organized the coup at the polls?" the Sabah said, "The fate of İstanbul is dependent on the stolen votes."

AKP Deputy Chair İhsan Yavuz also made similar claims, "This is the greatest blemish in our history of democracy."

No significant changes after recount

After the time to appeal to the district election councils expired, the councils today announced the first results of recounts in İstanbul. In three districts of İstanbul, Kartal, Şile, and Beykoz, AKP votes increased only by 12 after recounts, while CHP votes increased by 13.

CLICK - AKP Votes Increase by 12 After Recounts in İstanbul Districts

What will happen now?

The parties who think the elections results are not right can appeal at several different levels. The first level is the ballot council at the voting centers.

Then come the district and provincial election councils. The highest authority to make an appeal at is the Supreme Election Council.

The parties can request a recount for the all the votes, an examination of the invalid votes or an examination for duplicate votes.

The time for appeals at the district councils expired yesterday and the councils have two days to announce their decision on the objections.

AKP appealed against the results for many districts in İstanbul and Ankara. Depending on the response by the district elections councils, the party may appeal at the provincial election councils.

CHP also objected to the results in many places, claiming that the difference between İmamoğlu and Yıldırım will even increase after the objections are examined. (VK)