Turkish electoral authority: opposition party CHP strongest force Bridge collapse in Baltimore: rescue work difficult

The opposition party CHP has become the strongest force in Turkey’s local elections. On Monday, the electoral authority confirmed the surprising outcome of the election, which had already become clear that night. According to preliminary results, the center-left party has won 35 of the 81 mayoral positions across the country, the head of the electoral authority, Ahmet Yener, said. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Islamic conservative AKP only became the second strongest power for the first time since its founding in 2002. She won 24 mayors. An official final result is still pending.

The pro-Kurdish Democratic Party won 10 of the offices, while Erdoğan’s ultranationalist governing partner, the MHP, won eight, the head of the electoral authority said. The Islamist Yeniden-Refah party won two of the offices, but became the third strongest party in terms of national average percentage (6.2 percent) – albeit with a wide gap to the second-placed AKP (35.5 percent) and the first-place CHP. (37.7 percent).

Turnout in the elections was lower than in previous local elections: between 78.1 and 80.7 percent, Yener said. According to Anadolu, approximately 84 percent of eligible voters cast their votes in local elections in 2019. (sda/dpa)