Defeat In Istanbul Could Prove Disastrous For Erdogan

After the re-run of Istanbul's mayoral election, main opposition party candidate Ekrem Imamoglu won the contest with a lead of around 800,000 votes. The result is a serious blow to President Erdogan who's ruling AK party lost control of th city after 25 years of rule. Erdogan previously said that "whoever wins Istanbul, wins Turkey" and he congratulated Imamoglu on Twitter.

With most of the votes counted, Imamoglu had 54 percent while the AK party candidate, former Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, had 45 percent. Back in March, the CHP candidate also triumphed in the election, albeit by a narrow margin of 13,000 votes. That victory was annulled after the AKP claimed irregularities had occurred. This time around, however, the result is undeniable