İstanbul Mayor İmamoğlu: 'Everything will be Fine'

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İstanbul Metropolitan Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and his rival from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the March 31 local elections, Binali Yıldırım, made statements last night (May 6), after the Supreme Election Council (YSK) ruled for a repeat election in the city.

The latter said in a brief statement that he will run for the municipality again.

İmamoğlu, who will be stripped of his certificate of election today, addressed a crowd of thousands in Beylikdüzü district, where he has been living for decades and was a two-term mayor from the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP).

Beginning his words, İmamoğlu said, "I am a child of the CHP, I am proud of it. We won it with great effort. You are the greatest witnesses of the effort."

"At the night on March 31, they tried to take this election away from us, which we won. The shameless executives of the collaborating Anadolu Agency did not share information for 12 hours.

Maybe they made us live the media disgrace of the century. They used the Anadolu Agency, which is founded for the country, for their own interests. Maybe you are depressed but don't lose your hope, never give up," İmamoğlu said.

The state-run AA on the election night stopped updating the election results when İmamoğlu narrowed down the gap between Yıldırım to thousands of votes. It announced next day that it stopped updates because "data flow from the field stopped," but did not offer further explanation.

"These guys are laughable"

İmamoğlu briefly made the following remarks in his speech:

"That night, those who tried to betray our democracy hastily made statements, saying, 'We won by 3 thousand votes'. I would loudly laugh at this. These guys are laughable. Laugh at them.

"I denounce the YSK [Supreme Election Council]. Now, YSK announces a verdict. What is that? It canceled [the elections] upon the extraordinary objection [by the AKP] to the ballot councils. You chose the president with same councils last year, you made a referendum, the Constitution changed. Then the Constitution and the presidential election are questionable, too.

"No one can prevent this nation from having freedom and democracy.

"I know that when I walk this way, I will never walk alone. I will walk with 16 million people.

"Never lose your smiles. Never lose your hope in your hearts. Be together with me. O love you. And you will see, everything will be fine." (AÖ/VK)