Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pledged to find solutions to the country’s stumbling economy after a clear setback to his Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Sunday’s local elections.
In the mayoral race, early results showed that the president’s ruling party lost main municipalities, including the capital, Antalya, Adana and Izmir.
Erdogan portrayed the election as a victory for AKP, which along with coalition partner, the rightwing Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), won around 52 percent of the votes nationwide. But he did not refer directly to the loss of Ankara.
"AKP is the winner by far as it has always been since the Nov. 3, 2002 elections when it won for the first time," he said.
In Istanbul, former prime minister Binali Yildirim clinched a difficult victory with 50 percent of votes against 48 percent for his opponent Ekrem Imamoglu, who also claimed wining the race.
There was a high turnout in the local elections in a sign that voters would send a punishing message to Erdogan over the dire economic situation.
Following his party’s defeat in several municipalities, Erdogan pledged to focus on the economy in the run-up to national elections in 2023, noting that there's "a lot of work ahead."
“We will carry out economic reforms without compromising on the rules of the free-market economy," he told reporters.
The country’s currency crisis has tipped the economy into recession.
Reports said the ruling party lost control of Ankara to opposition bloc mayoral candidate Mansur Yavas.
“We will accept that we have won the hearts of our people in the places where we won, and we were not successful enough in the places where we lost, and we will decide on our action plan accordingly,” Erdogan said.
The local elections were held for the first time after the president acquired sweeping executive powers following the April 2017 referendum.
