Municipal elections in Turkey have begun
Voting for Turkey’s municipal elections is underway, and the party affiliated with the country’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, hopes to regain control of cities it lost in the last elections five years ago.
Most attention in today’s election is focused on the city of Istanbul, which is home to nearly one-fifth of Turkey’s population.
The current mayor of this city, Ekrem İmamoğlu, is an opposition politician, and his rival is Murat Kurum, a former cabinet minister.
Mr. İmamoğlu is considered a potential rival to Mr. Erdoğan in the upcoming presidential elections.
This voting is taking place amid severe economic problems, including inflation close to 70% in Turkey.