Turkey’s opposition candidate declared mayor of Istanbul, appeal from Erdogan’s AK Party pending

Turkey’s main opposition candidate was declared Istanbul’s mayor on Wednesday after election recounts were finally completed. New mayor Ekrem Imamoglu was handed a paper which formally granted his mandate as city mayor in a ceremony at an Istanbul court, Reuters reported. However, an appeal by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party (AKP) for the election to be re-run is still pending. Initial results from the March 31 local elections gave a narrow victory to the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) in Turkey’s commercial hub, ending 25 years of control by the AKP and its Islamist predecessors.