March 2019 Istanbul mayoral election

March 2019 Istanbul mayoral election

← 2014 31 March 2019 2019 (Jun) →
Opinion polls
Turnout	83.86% ( 5.56 pp)
First party Second party   Candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu Binali Yıldırım Party CHP AK Party Alliance Nation People Popular vote 4,169,765 4,156,036 Percentage 48.77% 48.61% Swing 8.69% 0.66%
Districts won by each candidate      Ekrem İmamoğlu (17)        Binali Yıldırım (22)
Mayor before election Mevlüt Uysal AK Party Elected Mayor Election results annulled New election held in June 2019

The March 2019 Istanbul mayoral election took place on 31 March 2019, as part of the 2019 Turkish local elections. In addition to a mayor for the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, all 39 Istanbul districts elected their own individual mayors as well as district councillors.

Early results on election night showed that People's Alliance candidate Binali Yıldırım held a small lead over his Nation Alliance rival Ekrem İmamoğlu. However, as the lead narrowed and a blackout occurred over the reporting of new results, İmamoğlu overtook Yıldırım according to the Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) on noon on 1 April. Both candidates declared victory, with banners showing Yıldırım's image and the message 'thank you Istanbul' appearing in numerous places overnight.^[1]

Yıldırım and his Justice and Development Party (AK Party) announced that they would contest the results, citing electoral irregularities and a series of enumerating errors when recording results. AK Party complaints for a complete recount of all votes were accepted by the electoral authorities in 5 of Istanbul's 39 districts, with the remaining 34 districts being approved for a recount of invalid and blank votes only. The recount process ended on 16 April, 16 days after the election, with results showing İmamoğlu still in the lead by around 14,000 votes, down from the 23,000 lead he had after the initial count.

The AK Party then submitted an extraordinary complaint to annul and repeat the election. The party's officials cited a claim that voters had been illegally registered to vote in the district of Büyükçekmece, where police began an operation to locate fraudulent voters. A number of ballot box officials and civil servants were taken into custody. A number of pro-government media outlets also accused the FETÖ organisation of interfering in the results, but without any proof.^[2]

Following the conclusion of a full recount in Maltepe on 16 April, İmamoğlu was summoned by the electoral authorities to receive his certificate of election.^[3] However, his mayoralty was cut short by the AK Party's request for the election to be annulled, lasting 18 days; on 6 May, the YSK decreed that the election would be annulled and repeated on 23 June 2019. The re-run resulted in a victory for İmamoğlu with a much greater margin, so he resumed his duties on 27 June.