Turkish election board rejects opposition bids to annul Erdogan’s 2018 victory

Turkey’s High Election Board (YSK) has rejected bids by opposition parties to annul all votes in Istanbul’s local elections, as well as last year’s nationwide elections, NTV said on Monday.

The YSK last week ordered a rerun of the Istanbul mayoral election, citing irregularities in the appointment of polling station officials after appeals by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party (AKP). However, the election board did not cancel votes for district administrators, mayors, and municipal councils.

The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the Iyi (Good) Party argued that if the mayoral vote, which the CHP won, was cancelled then all other votes in Istanbul, as well as Erdogan’s victory in a presidential election last year, should also be annulled. The opposition said the same flaws were present in those elections, Reuters reports.