İstanbul, Ankara mayors remain confident Kılıçdaroğlu will win, accuse state agency of 'manipulation'

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Mayor of İstanbul and Vice Presidential candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu and Mayor of Ankara and Vice Presidential candidate Mansur Yavaş held a briefing at the CHP Headquarters at 7:35 pm. İmamoğlu said:

"We are addressing on behalf of our 13th President Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and on behalf of the Nation Alliance.

"Unfortunately, we are experiencing the same situation that we have seen in every election. The Anadolu Agency case is on the agenda again. However, Anadolu Agency has been in a vegetative state since the 2019 March 31 elections and is waiting for our government to revive it.

"The reputation of Anadolu Agency is below zero. It has no reputable aspect. We carefully inform our citizens not to trust it.

"Especially after giving data for two and a half hours and then cutting off the data flow when they saw the real numbers in Istanbul, Anadolu Agency and its managers are worthless to us.

"Anadolu Agency, which is a state institution, has destroyed its reputation by not assigning any mission or task to itself as stated in our and our respected Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu's statements.

"While expressing our confidence in every public official of our state, it is clear that we have no faith in Anadolu Agency since we did not even mention their name.

"AA is manipulating perception"

"I would like to make a few reminders. In the June 2015 elections, Anadolu Agency started with 65% and again put Erdoğan ahead. The election ended with 40%. Anadolu Agency manipulated the perception by 25%. In November 2015, it started with 75% and ended with 49%. About 26 points.

"In the 2018 presidential election, when Mr. Erdoğan was elected, it started with up to 67%, and ended with 52%. That night ended with a decrease of about fifteen points, somehow. In 2019, they could not do it again. They started high, but Anadolu Agency closed their screens with much lower polling rates after 2 hours. As of that moment, it was closed.

"Now, looking at these rates, we can say this comfortably. Our 13th presidential candidate Mr. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu will be announced as our country's President tonight. We believe in this, but it is still early to declare this by looking at the data.

"If we look at the nights where Anadolu Agency started with 57% and ended 15-20 points behind, we can say that you can calculate and determine the results of tonight."

(AÖ/HA/VK)