The largest opposition party in Turkey at a national level, the CHP, achieved the highest number of votes in yesterday's local elections, with 37.7%, beating for the first time President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's formation, the AKP, which obtained 35.4%, marking one of the lowest results in its political history. This is according to the data published by the state TV TRT, with over 99% of the ballots scrutinized, while the results will be officially confirmed in the next few days by the Supreme Electoral Council of Turkey (YSK).
The CHP mayors won in the five largest cities in the country, including Istanbul and the capital Ankara. Erdogan's party still proved to be strong in part of central Anatolia, despite losing several provinces in the region, historically its stronghold, both to the CHP but also due to the victories of the Islamist Yeniden Refah Partisi and the far-right nationalist party MHP, formations that supported Erdogan in last year's presidential elections. The pro-Kurdish and left-wing party Dem achieved an excellent result in the south-east, on the border with Syria and Turkey, increasing the number of its votes and the provinces it conquered compared to five years ago.
According to what was stated by the Turkish Electoral Council, the turnout was 78.7%, down compared to the administrative elections of 5 years ago, in which 84.6% of those entitled to vote, and also compared to the presidential elections last year, when participation had approached 90%.
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