After Turkey’s ruling party submitted a petition for a new mayoral election to be held in İstanbul, its ally the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) on Wednesday also applied to the Supreme Election Board (YSK) for annulment of İstanbul’s election of March 31 and for the holding of a new election, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
A full recount of votes in the Maltepe district, one of the largest districts of İstanbul, was completed on Tuesday, and according to the opposition party it does not affect the initial results, which indicated a win for the opposition alliance’s candidate, Ekrem İmamoğlu.
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 election in favor of the opposition alliance.