Istanbul election board announces candidates for June 23 rerun polls

ISTANBUL

The Istanbul provincial election board announced on May 27 the list of candidates who will run for the renewed June 23 elections.

Besides the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu, who was declared winner of the March 31 elections before it got scrapped, ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) candidate Binali Yıldırım, Felicity (Saadet) Party candidate Necdet Gökçınar and Vatan Party candidate Mustafa İlker Yücel, 17 independent candidates will run for the local polls.

Ballot slips with the names of these candidates started being printed as of May 27. Processes regarding the ballot boxes will be completed on May 29. Election propaganda and prohibitions will begin on June 13.

The results of the March Istanbul vote were canceled after the AKP and its partner Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) appealed with the Supreme Election Council (YSK), citing irregularities and violations to the country’s election law.      

The mayoral certificate of İmamoğlu was revoked by the YSK on May 6.

According to the YSK, the decision was made based on appeals that ineligible officers and polling staffs, who are supposed to be civil servants as per Turkish law, served during the elections.

Millions of Turkish voters cast their votes nationwide on March 31 in the local elections to choose mayors, city council members and neighborhood heads. But Istanbul’s residents will go to polling stations on June 23 to only elect the mayor of the city.

Yıldırım had lost against İmamoğlu, trailing by around 13,000 votes behind his rival in the local elections on March 31.