Erdogan receives election blow as AKP lose control of capital

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's AKP party has lost control of Ankara for the first time in 16 years after local elections on Sunday.

The secularist Republican People's Party (CHP) are also reportedly ahead in the mayoral race in Istanbul, with opposition candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu holding a lead of 0.28% over former prime minister Binali Yıldırım with 99.8% of ballot boxes opened.

CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said: "The people have voted in favour of democracy. They have chosen democracy."

While not the capital, Istanbul is a major commercial center and, with a population of 15m, is Turkey's largest city, as well as being where Erdogan began his rise to power in 1994.

Both sides have claimed victory in the city and ruling party officials have suggested that they will challenge thousands of ballots in both Istanbul and Ankara, though it appears to be undisputed that the CHP have control of Izmir, Turkey's third-largest city.

Nationwide Erdogan's AKP alliance have won more than 51% of the vote, allowing him to declare that his party had "emerged as the winner", but the results are a significant blow to his leadership, particularly as his AKP party has won every election since 2002.

The President blamed the poor results on his party's inadequacy at explaining its aims to the Turkish people and said that "as of tomorrow morning, we will start finding and making up for our shortcomings."

Erdogan, who next faces a national election in 2023, had said recently that the vote, which is largely seen as an evaluation of his time in power, was vital to the survival of the country and his party as his support has been eroded by economic recession and the falling value of the Turkish lira.

The President has also faced increasing criticism from the West as his rule has grown more autocratic since a failed coup in 2016, with tens of thousands of people arrested or purged from their jobs, including 2,700 judges, 15,000 teachers and every university dean in the country.