Binali Yıldırım will be the candidate of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the re-election of the mayor of Istanbul, TASS reported referring to Milliyet.
In turn, the leading opposition Republican People’s Party (NPP) of Turkey announced that it would re-nominate Ekrem Imamoglu as a candidate.
According to official data, Imamoglu was ahead of Yildirim, gaining 4,171 million votes in the March 31 elections. For the first time since 2002, the AKP lost in the municipal elections in Istanbul, the mayor of which from 1994 to 1998 was Erdogan. After the official results were announced, the party of the Turkish leader appealed to the High Electoral Commission demanding to cancel the results of the mayoral elections in Istanbul and repeat them in connection with the violations committed during the voting.
On Monday, the High Electoral Commission of Turkey decided to cancel the election results in Istanbul announced that the certificate of recognition of the candidate from the RPP by the mayor would be recalled. New municipal elections are scheduled for June 23.
