Turkish local elections, 31 March 2019

[President Johnson]

Looks like Erdo is rigging another election. This guy is so disgraceful.

[cp]

What are the chances he succeeds?

[Middle-aged Europe]

Yeah, Freedom House ranks the country as "Not Free" for a reason. Although it still rates slightly better than Russia or China. But maybe this will change in the 2020 report due to today's decision?

[Tender Branson]

Istanbul election anulled and will be repeated.

YSC (electoral commission) has accepted AK Parti appeal regarding the result.

They are coming up with some nonsense about "FETÖ" rigging.

LOL.

Erdogan always cries how much he hates Austria and now he's copying Austria with the election repeat ...

[Sir Mohamed]

LOL, the dude can't take losing and repeats an election until the result is "the right one."

I don't have a proof for this, it's just a personal theory, but I believe Erdogan himself initiated the attempted 2016 coup or at least knew it was about to happen and let it go to oppress the opposition. Has worked quite well for him.

[Walmart_shopper]

First returns have Immoglu up by eight, which is a pretty massive blow to Erdogen if it holds up.

[ON Progressive]

Glorious news!

[Epaminondas]

This is indeed fabulous news.

People who oppose Erdogan will take the fact that the runoff happened as proof that Turkey is a dictatorship.
People who support him will contend that its results show that Turkey is a democracy.

In truth both are correct: Turkey is state in which the separation of powers dont exist.

The little yes-no-but reasoning is seductive, yet there can be no democracy is the political parties are gagged in the public eye and if elections are re-run when the president demands it.

Turkey is no longer a democracy since the 2015 hung parliament was ignored for no reason.

More worryingly for Europe, Turkey outside of Istanbul has now fully veered away from its secular Kemalistic roots.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Who gives a crap that kemalism is dead? All the relics of kemalism ever did was kill Kurds and socialists and allow erdogan to present himself as a friend of democracy.

[Epaminondas]

Who gives a crap that kemalism is dead?

Anyone who considers the alternative in a country from the Near East. How well are the neighbours of Turkey doing?

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Who gives a crap that kemalism is dead?

Anyone who considers the alternative in a country from the Near East. How well are the neighbours of Turkey doing?

Yes, I know many people think brown people are too dumb for democracy and must be ruled by an iron fist by pseudosecular authoritarians, but this is not a belief I share.

[JGibson]

Thank God İmamoğlu won.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Adressed at Erdogan:

[Velasco]

NYT says the result is a "stinging defeat"

 President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey suffered the biggest defeat of his political career on Sunday as his candidate for Istanbul mayor conceded defeat in a repeat election, two months after Mr. Erdogan’s party forced the cancellation of the same vote after it lost.  

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/23/world/europe/istanbul-mayor-election-erdogan.html

This is indeed fabulous news.

People who oppose Erdogan will take the fact that the runoff happened as proof that Turkey is a dictatorship.
People who support him will contend that its results show that Turkey is a democracy.

In truth both are correct: Turkey is state in which the separation of powers dont exist.

The little yes-no-but reasoning is seductive, yet there can be no democracy is the political parties are gagged in the public eye and if elections are re-run when the president demands it.

Turkey is no longer a democracy since the 2015 hung parliament was ignored for no reason.

More worryingly for Europe, Turkey outside of Istanbul has now fully veered away from its secular Kemalistic roots.

A couple of things regarding the last sentence

1) The 'secular' opposition seized Ankara from AKP three months ago and holds Izmir, so the three largest metropolitan areas are veered away from the AKP. It's true, however, that most of the country voted for the AKP-MHP alliance. Exceptions:  Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Thrace, the Aegean, the Southern coast, the regions with Kurdish majority in the SE or the Alevi province

2) Anyone vindicating the secular authoritarian Ataturk is disqualified to criticize a religious conservative authoritarian like Erdogan.

I don't like the CHP very nuch (my choice is the HDP), but it's great that Erdogan lost this election

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

This cancellation was absolutely ridiculous and I am glad Erdogan got slapped down again, even if a small victory. Turkey was great before he came to power, I really hope he leaves soon and we can get the Turkey that was there before back.

[DavidB.]

Amazing news.

[Donerail]

Seems fairly clear that this massive margin can only be the result of widespread fraud. In the interest of fairness, it is essential to redo the election.

[Snipee356]

Beautiful news! Hopefully this can be replicated in the 2023 presidential election (though I doubt...)

[Dr Oz Lost Party!]

A foolish stunt by Erdogan. It swung nearly 10 points towards the opposition from the invalidated March results.

March-


Today-

[Antonio the Sixth]

Thank goodness democracy has won the battle. It's far from having won the war, though.

[Sir Mohamed]

Glad to see Erdogan's game didn't work this time. Hopefully this is the beginning of the end of his regime.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

Imamoglu winning is good news. It's for the better the AKP doesn't get too arrogant or overconfident, and tactics like playing a key role in the overturning of an election shouldn't be rewarded.
I still support Erdogan, but that doesn't mean I think the AKP deserves to win every single election.

[President Johnson]

Erdo shot himself in the foot with this. Well deserved loss.

Obviously it's way too soon to say he's doomed already, but if the economy continues to tank he gets in trouble down the road if the opposition can present a real alternative. The strong economy has for a long time been his backbone with the people.

[nicholas.slaydon]

Thank goodness democracy has won the battle. It's far from having won the war, though.