Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) on Tuesday submitted a petition to the Supreme Election Board (YSK) asking that a new mayoral election be held in İstanbul, the T24 news website reported.
“Nearly 6,000 votes were counted for other parties, although they were actually cast for the AKP,” Ali İhsan Yavuz, the party’s co-chairman, told reporters.
According to the opposition alliance, which was declared victorious in İstanbul’s election by the YSK after recounts of the votes in dozens of districts, mayor-elect Ekrem İmamoğlu is still leading the race with 15,000 votes against the AKP’s Binali Yıldırım.
The AKP believes there were discrepancies in İstanbul’s election, requesting a full recount of votes in 38 out of 39 districts; however, the election board only allowed a full recount in four districts, while ruling to recount all invalid votes in other places.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan claimed that the irregularities in the results pointed to an “organized scheme” that aimed to rig the elections in favor of the opposition alliance.