Victory of ruling party in Turkey - opposition seems to be winning - COMMENT

These municipal elections gave a number of messages to the ruling elite, the opposition, those who love and dislike Turkey. Democracy is winning when elections are free, transparent and fair. It can be applied to local elections of 2019 were held on Sunday 31 March 2019. All contradictions were solved in the light of the rule of law, without taking to the streets, civil confrontation, and without collisions between the police and peaceful protesters. This is an indication of democratic principles in Turkey.

Thus, according to official results, Imamoglu won the election, receiving 4,169,765 votes while Turkey's former prime minister and the AK Party candidate Binali Yildirim, 63, received 4,130,049 votes. Of the 57,930,410 voters, 48,340,184 have been voted and 46,431,717 votes were valid.

Republican Alliance won 51.64 percent of the vote (AKP 44.33 %, MHP 7.31%), the National Alliance 37.57 % (CHP 30.12 % and Good Party 7.45 %).

The Democratic People's Party ranked fourth with 4.24%. Looking at the overall picture, it can be seen that the ruling political party lost some votes in the municipal elections in 2014 and the number of votes of the main opposition party, CHP increased. That year, AKP gained 45.6 %, the CHP 27.8 %. According to the results of the presidential election in 2018, the AKP has significantly increased the number of votes. In this political campaign, 42.56 % of voters voted for AKP and 22.64 % for CHP. According to the results of the presidential election in 2018, the AKP has significantly increased the number of votes. Candidate from AKP Recep Tayyip Erdoğan won 52.59 % of the vote and CHP candidate Muharrem İnce won 30.64 %. The outcome of a referendum on amendments to the constitution in 2017 confirms that the ruling party has no change in the number of vote.

Since the initiator and author of the package of amendments was the AKP, 51.4 % voted in favor and 48.6 % against the issue put on referendum.The result of the province of Istanbul is in favor of AKP's favor. The ruling party won in 24 out of the 39 provinces, CHP in 14 and the MHP - in one. From 25 district municipalities in Ankara AKP won in 19, CHP and MHP won in 3 each.

In any case, the recent elections and Ekrem İmamoğlu will go down to the history of Turkey. The reason for this was the complaint lodged with the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality regarding the vote on the candidate. For the first time in Turkey's history, the complaint was filed by the National People's Party of 1946. In the municipal elections of 2014, the AKP applied with 84 complaints, of which 7 were accepted. Four of the 44 complaints of the CHP were reviewed. Only 522 complaints have been filed this year. 13 of them have been accepted. One of the places where the complaint is not accepted is Iğdır. Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) candidate Yaşar Akkuş won 50.1 percent of the votes, while MHP and candidate of the Republican Alliance Yaşar Tezel were defeated by 46.68 percent. This state is more important for the Republic of Azerbaijan. The experience of the past years proves that when HDP in Turkey, Azerbaijan and Iran's border regions or other forces close to PKK terrorists declared victorious, they cosy up to Armenia. The construction and subsequent demolition of the monument, which is called the “Monument to Humanity” in the city of Kars in recent years, symbolized as Turkish-Armenian friendship, confirms that. The incident also confirmed that the announcement of the PKK fighters' victory in the elections in Turkey has led to the strengthening of relations between the terrorists and Armenia. They are trying to seize local power in the regions between Azerbaijan and Turkey. In this way, they are trying to control the regions between Azerbaijan and Turkey and get exit to Armenia as they wish. They can also locate terrorists near the territory of Azerbaijan. From this point of view, the political forces coming to power in these regions are of great interest to Azerbaijan.

These municipal elections gave a number of messages to the ruling elite, the opposition, those who love and dislike Turkey. The ruling party's defeat in Istanbul is a serious signal for the 2023 parliamentary and presidential elections. This means that the electorate of the country's most politically active city is in opposition to the current government. Because Istanbul is one of the eyes of the world, and it is also Turkey's political scene. Over the past five years, the opposition has seemed very passive. However, the results of the recent elections showed that opposition has strengthened. It also indicates that new and younger forces have come to the politics. Thus, the next elections are expected to be more difficult for the ruling party. Finally, Turkey's friends were delighted with what happened. It was once again proved that dictatorship, authoritarianism, military regimes cannot be established in the country. It was also proved that the dominant political force is loyal to democratic principles. His enemies were not expecting to see democracy in Turkey and it would be a reason for them to humiliate and attack it. The political elite of the Republic did not please them this time. At the same time, elections were remembered as a triumph of democracy in a Muslim country. Turkey successfully finished political process that could be a good example for other Muslims and West in many indicators.