Image copyright AFP Image caption Opposition CHP supporters celebrated in Istanbul

The party of Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has lost control of the capital, Ankara, in local elections, in a blow to his 16-year rule.

The main opposition is also slightly ahead in the contest for mayor of Istanbul, figures published by the state-run Anadolu news agency suggest.

But the president's AKP party is challenging the result in both cities.

Municipal elections were held across the nation on Sunday and an AKP-led alliance won more than 51% of the vote.

The elections, considered a verdict on Mr Erdogan's rule, have been taking place during an economic downturn.

The currency, the lira, has been losing value recently and the economy went into recession in the last three months of 2018.

What has the ruling party been saying?

The AKP - or Justice and Development Party - alleges "invalid votes and irregularities in most of the 12,158 polling stations in Ankara".

Its general secretary, Fatih Sahin, said on Twitter: "We will use our legal rights to the fullest, and we will not allow the will of our citizens to be altered in Ankara."

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Erdogan: "We will appeal wherever needed"

The AKP says it will also challenge the result in Istanbul - the largest city - and the eastern province of Igdir.

Commenting on the results in a speech on Sunday, Mr Erdogan looked ahead to national elections in 2023: "We have a long period ahead where we will carry out economic reforms without compromising on the rules of the free-market economy.

"If there are any shortcomings, it is our duty to correct them," he said.

What are the results?

More than 57 million people in the country were registered to vote for mayors and councillors. Turnout was high at just under 85%.

The opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) candidate Mansur Yavas won in Ankara, officials said. With almost all votes counted, he was on nearly 51% and the AKP's Mehmet Ozhaseki had won the support of just over 47%.

Both CHP and the AKP claim victory in Istanbul, which has been in the hands of parties linked to Mr Erdogan since 1994, when he was elected the city's mayor.

The election commission said the CHP's Ekrem Imamoglu was leading there by less than 0.5%, but that the results of more than 80 ballot boxes were being challenged. Results carried by Anadolu put the margin even narrower, at less than 0.25%.

Image copyright AFP Image caption The CHP's mayoral candidate for Istanbul Ekrem Imamoglu has claimed victory by 28,000 votes

The AKP had been saying its candidate, former Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, was ahead by 4,000 votes. He later conceded his opponent had a narrow lead, only for the AKP to again claim victory.

The third largest city, Izmir, went to the CHP.

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

Image of invincibility broken

Analysis by Mark Lowen, BBC Turkey correspondent

Electoral figures show Istanbul falling to the opposition by a whisker, although the ruling party has challenged the result and refused to concede. Ekrem Imamoglu, who's already changed his Twitter profile to "mayor of Istanbul", has vowed to serve all sides - those who voted for and against him - without discrimination.

President Erdogan's setbacks deepened elsewhere, losing the capital, Ankara, and several other cities as his conservative voters punished him for an economic crisis.

Local elections are important here. Parties build their base at grassroots level; Mr Erdogan himself gained power after being mayor of Istanbul.

He turned this poll into, in effect, a referendum on himself. Now his image of invincibility has been broken and an opposition long seen as hopelessly divided has got a new lease of life. Swathes of Turkey still adore Mr Erdogan, but the half of the country that detests its polarising president are starting to believe he's beatable.

How was the campaign?

This was the first municipal vote since Mr Erdogan assumed sweeping executive powers through last year's presidential election.

The AKP, with its roots in political Islam, has won every election since coming to power in 2002.

Mr Erdogan, whose two-month campaign included 100 rallies, said the poll was about the "survival" of the country and his party.

Image copyright EPA Image caption AKP supporters also celebrated in Istanbul - but Mr Erdogan later hinted that the party may have lost control there

With most media either pro-government or controlled by Mr Erdogan's supporters, critics believe opposition parties campaigned at a disadvantage. Mr Erdogan's rallies dominated TV coverage.

The opposition pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) said the elections were unfair and refused to put forward candidates in several cities.

Some of its leaders have been jailed on terrorism charges, accusations they reject.</s>Istanbul, Turkey - Millions of Turkish voters on Sunday cast their ballots in critical local elections, after a heated campaign dominated by discussions over the country's economy and security.

Voting ended in Turkey's eastern provinces at 4pm (13:00 GMT) and in western provinces at 14:00 GMT.

The polls pose a major challenge for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development (AK) Party given a backdrop of high inflation and rising unemployment sparked by a major currency crisis last year.

According to Taha Akyol, a Turkish political analyst and columnist, the vote is the "hardest" faced by Erdogan's party since coming to power in 2002.

"The party is trying hard to stay away from discussing actual economic issues," he said.

Ayse Kara, a 40-year-old voter in Istanbul, said she cast her ballot taking into account the stability of the country.

"I considered the economy and terror as the main issues while casting my vote. I believe everything will get more stable after the elections," Kara, who works in manufacturing, told Al Jazeera.

Ilke Beltinge, a 25 year-old student, said she did not like the country's current direction.



"I cast my vote for more freedoms, a better economy and a better educational system. And I hope that we will see change following these polls," she told Al Jazeera at an Istanbul polling station.

Two people were killed in the eastern province of Malatya, and dozens of others were wounded in various provinces of Turkey in fights that broke out in the voting process, state media reported.

Turkey's economy has been hit hard since the lira lost as much as 40 percent of its value against the US dollar last year. The currency crisis, triggered in August after a bitter diplomatic spat with Washington, raised investor concerns over the independence of the Central Bank and highlighted wider worries over the performance of the economy.

The polls took place just weeks after official statistics showed that in the last two quarters of 2018 the Turkish economy slipped into its first recession in a decade, as inflation and interest rates soared due to the currency meltdown.

In February, inflation stood at just under 20 percent, while the Central Bank's main interest rate is currently 24 percent.

As part of an initiative to tackle rising inflation, Turkey's government set up these discounted food stalls. pic.twitter.com/5zAIy2LvGC — Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) March 30, 2019

The lira on Thursday resumed its slide following the return of liquidity at a key London exchange market after an earlier decision by authorities to hold it back, in a move aimed at keeping the plunging currency steady and thwarting short-sellers - traders who bet against the lira.

Erdogan has often blamed foreign powers and "speculators" for the currency fluctuations and other economic woes faced by Turkey - a message he repeated this week.

"Attempts by a range of Western countries, most importantly the US, to put pressure on Ankara were behind the August 2018 manipulations in the Turkish currency market," Erdogan told reporters.

"We must discipline the speculators in the market," he said in another address.

Rival coalitions

With control of Turkey's major cities up for grabs, Erdogan's AK Party entered the election race with its ally in the last two polls, the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), under the People's Alliance.

The bloc's biggest rival is the Nation's Alliance, which was formed by the centre-left main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and the right-wing Good (IYI) Party.

190327190617999

Both blocs have fielded dozens of joint candidates in the country's provinces, districts and towns.

The pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party (HDP), the fifth party represented in parliament, has not put forward any mayoral candidates for Turkey's six largest provinces, Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Bursa, Antalya and Adana, opting instead to back candidates running against Erdogan's alliance.

In recent years, HDP has seen scores of its mayors removed and replaced with trustees due to "terror charges" under an emergency rule that was put in place after a failed coup in 2016. The emergency measure ended in July 2018.

'Nationalistic rhetoric'

In the lead-up to Sunday's vote, the People's Alliance has sought to link the local polls to internal and external risks threatening the country's security.

The bloc's leaders have accused the parties in the Nation Alliance of being in cooperation with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has fought the Turkish state for more than 30 years for its autonomy.

190328135247320

Erdogan himself has cited the fact that the pro-Kurdish HDP is not competing in major cities but supports his opponents as proof of that cooperation.

"They do not talk about the dirty negotiations to carry the extensions of the PKK to municipalities through the candidate's list [of the Nation Alliance]," Erdogan said in a recent rally.

The government argues that the HDP has organic links to the PKK, a claim that has been denied by the political party.

Separately, the parties that make up the Nation Alliance have repeatedly dismissed the claims that they are cooperating with the HDP.

Galip Dalay, a visiting fellow at the University of Oxford, said that Erdogan's bloc used "a high-pitch nationalist rhetoric" during the campaign, with state security at its heart.

"They used the concept of terror and terrorism very generously in almost all policy areas - they link basic issues to terror and security," Dalay, who is also a non-resident fellow at Brookings Institution in Doha, told Al Jazeera.

"The bloc also linked the economic situation of Turkey and other problems the country is going through to conspiracies carried out by internal and external actors," he said.

Opposition campaign

For its part, the main opposition alliance has focused its campaign on the economic situation and its effect on citizens.

190330051827609

It also used Turkish flags in their campaigns, rather than party banners, in an apparent bid to attract voters from different backgrounds.

CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu has accused chronic economic mismanagement by the AK Party and Erdogan for the staggering unemployment, high costs of living and the lira's weakening.

"There are serious problems. But they fail to explain how they will address these problems," Kilicdaroglu told supporters earlier this week, arguing that the People's Alliance was raising artificial security issues to distract voters from real problems.

"How is the work of a mayor, or a municipal council member, related to state security or threats against Turkey?" he asked.

According to Dalay, the Nation Alliance has carried out a low-profile strategy, without promoting the political identities of the CHP and IYI Party - the parties comprising the bloc.

"Instead of putting forward identities of the two parties, they put the spotlight on their candidates and the problems average citizens go through because of the economic crisis," Dalay said.

"They try to bring up actual problems Turkey is currently facing to attract such as inflation and unemployment," he said.

Follow Umut Uras on Twitter @Um_Uras</s>Turkish people headed to polls early Sunday to cast their ballots in the country's 81 provinces to vote for mayors, municipal mayors, city council members and other local officials.

Voting started at 7.00 a.m local time (0400GMT) and will continue through 4.00 p.m. local time (1300GMT) in 32 out of Turkey's 81 provinces.

In the remaining provinces, polling stations will open at 8.00 a.m and close at 5.00 p.m. local time (0050-1400GMT).

Mobile ballot boxes were brought to the homes of the sick and the elderly who are unable to get out and vote at the designated polling stations.

Voters living in Turkey's larger cities will vote to elect a mayor for the entire city, as well as district municipal mayors, city council members, mukhtars (neighborhood officials), and members of elder councils.

The voters will choose from 12 political parties competing in the local elections.

More than 44 million citizens are expected to vote at 142,777 polling places in 30 biggest cities, called metropolitan municipalities.

Meanwhile, 12.8 million voters will vote at 51,851 polling places across 51 provinces in Turkey.

Turkey is holding its first local elections under the new presidential system, adopted in the April 2017 referendum.

The previous local elections were held in 2014.

The major competing parties are the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Good (IYI) Party, and Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).

Also taking part are the Independent Turkey Party (BTP), Grand Unity Party (BBP), Democrat Party (DP), Democratic Left Party (DSP), Saadet (Felicity) Party, Communist Party of Turkey (TKP), and Patriotic (Vatan) Party.

Some political parties -- including the ruling AK Party -- announced alliances in some cities.

In the People's Alliance (Cumhur Ittifaki), the AK Party and MHP agreed to support each other's candidates in 30 metropolitan municipalities and 51 provinces.

The opposition has formed The Nation's Alliance (Millet Ittifaki), which brings the CHP and IYI Party together to support each other's candidates in 22 out of 30 metropolitan municipalities.

The CHP nominated 12 candidates and agreed to support 10 IYI Party candidates in metropolitan municipalities.

The parties reached consensus in 27 out of 51 provinces.

Election campaigns ended and a broadcast ban entered into force on Saturday in Turkey, as the country heads to local elections on Sunday.

According to the ban imposed by the Supreme Election Council (YSK), media organizations will not be allowed to broadcast any political advertising, predictions or comments about the polls from 6 p.m. local time (1500GMT) until 9 p.m. (1800GMT) on Sunday.

The YSK reserves the right to lift t</s>Turkish voters go to polls in critical municipal elections

ISTANBUL (AP) — Voters in Turkey have begun casting ballots in municipal elections that are seen as a barometer of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's popularity amid a sharp economic downturn in the nation that straddles Europe and Asia.

More than 57 million voters are eligible to choose mayors, local representatives and neighborhood or village administrators. The elections are being held as Turkey faces an economic recession, rising food prices and high unemployment.

Erdogan's past electoral successes have been based on economic prosperity, but opinion polls suggest this time around his ruling party could lose control of Turkey's large cities, including Ankara, the capital.

Erdogan has campaigned heavily for his party's candidates, declaring Turkey's economic woes "an attack" on the country and framing the elections on Sunday as matter of "national survival."</s>According to Anadolu Agency, voting started at 7.00 a.m local time (0400GMT) and will continue through 4.00 p.m. local time (1300GMT) in 32 out of Turkey’s 81 provinces.

In the remaining provinces, polling stations will open at 8.00 a.m and close at 5.00 p.m. local time (0500-1400GMT).

Voters living in Turkey’s larger cities will vote to elect a mayor for the entire city, as well as district municipal mayors, city council members, mukhtars (neighborhood officials), and members of elder councils.

The voters will choose from 12 political parties competing in the local elections.

More than 44 million citizens are expected to vote at 142,777 polling places in 30 biggest cities, called metropolitan municipalities.

Meanwhile, 12.8 million voters will vote at 51,851 polling places across 51 provinces in Turkey.

Turkey is holding its first local elections under the new presidential system, adopted in the April 2017 referendum.

The previous local elections were held in 2014.</s>Turkish voters go to polls in critical municipal elections

ISTANBUL (AP) — Voters in Turkey began casting ballots in Sunday's municipal elections, which are seen as a barometer of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's popularity amid a sharp economic downturn in the nation that straddles Europe and Asia.

More than 57 million eligible voters are making choices in 200,000 polling stations across the country to elect the mayors for 30 large metropolitan cities, 51 provincial capitals and 922 districts. They are also voting to elect local assembly representatives as well as tens of thousands of neighborhood or village administrators.

Erdogan's past electoral successes have been based on economic prosperity, but with a weakening currency, inflation at double-digit figures and food prices soaring, his conservative, Islamic-based ruling party could lose control of key mayoral seats.

The municipal elections are also a first test for Erdogan since he won elections last year that ushered in a new system that gave him wide powers.

Opposition parties are mostly coordinating strategies and running under alliances in an effort to maximize the chances to unseat ruling party officials.

The main battleground appears to be for Ankara, the capital, where opinion polls have suggested that Mansur Yavas, an opposition alliance candidate, could upset a quarter of a century rule by Erdogan's Justice and Development Party and its predecessor. Mehmet Ozhaseki, former minister of environment and urban planning, who is running on the ticket for Erdogan and his nationalist allies.

In Istanbul, Erdogan named former Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, who also served previously as transport minister, to run against Ekrem Imamoglu from the opposition.

"Whoever wins Istanbul, wins Turkey," Erdogan has said in election rallies. His rise to power began as Istanbul mayor in 1994.

Erdogan has campaigned tirelessly for his party's candidates, portraying the country's economic woes as an attack by western nations on Turkey and has framed the race a matter of "national survival." On Saturday, he spoke at six rallies in Istanbul, which Turkish television stations broadcast live.

Erdogan has been using fiercely polarizing rhetoric against opposition candidates. The ruling party has accused Ankara mayoral candidate Yavas of forgery and tax evasion while also threatening to depose mayors from a pro-Kurdish party if they win seats in the country's predominantly Kurdish southeast.

Since 2016, Erdogan's government has replaced elected mayors in about 100 municipalities held by the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party, replacing them with government-appointed trustees and claiming the ousted officials had alleged links to outlawed Kurdish militants.

The pro-Kurdish party aims to win back those seats. It is also strategically sitting out critical races in Turkey's major cities, including Istanbul and Ankara, with the aim of sending votes to their secular opposition rival to help challenge Erdogan's party.</s>"The results of these elections reflect economic uncertainty the country has been living in for the past few years, as well as concerns about the government’s polarizing discourse," Yilmaz said.

He stressed the victory of the opposition CHP put a pressure on it to deliver.

READ MORE: Erdogan Condemns Armed Scuffles at Municipal Elections in Turkey

"Let’s see how the opposition fares. Only time will tell how the local authorities treat the newly elected mayors," the lawmaker added, saying it was too early to predict how the AKP challenge of the results in Istanbul will play out.

Turks were voting for mayors of 30 metropolitan cities, scores of provincial capitals and hundreds of municipal districts, as well as for local assembly representatives and village administrators.

The AKP-led alliance has been triumphant in the municipal polls after winning 51.6 percent of votes. The CHP-led bloc came second with 37.5 percent. The Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party was backed in the Kurdish-majority southeast.</s>"The incident in Malatya is very distressing. We should not allow this. As the president, I am very saddened over citizens' deaths. We cannot allow the struggle between the parties to reach this point. Now the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the prosecutor's office are conducting investigations. I express my condolences to the relatives of the victims," Erdogan told reporters after casting his ballot.

Earlier in the day, local media reported that two people were killed and three others were injured as a result of armed scuffles during the voting at the municipal elections in the Turkish provinces of Malatya and Diyarbakir in country's east. The scuffles erupted between the candidates for the post of village administrators.

​​Turkish voters cast ballots on Sunday to elect mayors of cities, provincial capitals and municipal districts, as well as local assembly representatives and village administrators.

Candidates from 12 political parties are running in the elections, including the opposition Nation Alliance led by the Republican People's Party (CHP), and the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP), in alliance with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).

The president expressed hope that the municipal elections in Turkey will be held at a high turnout and will make a great contribution to the country's future.</s>President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party is leading in Turkey’s municipal elections but may lose control of the capital in a vote seen as a test of his support amid a sharp economic downturn.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party is leading in Turkey’s municipal elections but may lose control of the capital in a vote seen as a test of his support amid a sharp economic downturn.

Mr Erdogan’s conservative, Islamic-based party, gained 46% of the votes in the elections, with more than half of the more than 194,000 ballot boxes counted, according to state broadcaster TRT. The main, secular-oriented opposition party was said to have taken 30.5%.

But the opposition is leading in the capital, Ankara, with 49.5% of the votes, according to TRT, in a setback for Mr Erdogan, whose ruling party and its predecessor have held the mayoral seat for 25 years.

Mr Erdogan’s party appeared to be holding Istanbul still, the country’s commercial hub, although the opposition’s candidate had narrowed the gap.

The voting was marred by scattered election violence that killed at least four people and injured dozens of others across Turkey.

Economic prosperity has provided Mr Erdogan and his party with previous election victories.

But the party faces the risk of losing mayoral seats in the elections taking place in 30 large cities, 51 provincial capitals and hundreds of districts, as Turkey grapples with a weakened currency, a double-digit inflation rate and soaring food prices.

The local contests’ high stakes were brought into sharp focus with the deaths of two members of the Islamic-oriented Felicity Party, a small rival of the president’s Justice and Development Party.

Felicity’s leader, Temel Karamollaoglu, alleged that a polling station volunteer and a party observer had been shot by a relative of a ruling party candidate.

The killings were not caused by “simple animosity”, but happened when the volunteers tried to enforce the law requiring ballots to be marked in private voting booths instead of out in the open, Mr Karamollaoglu tweeted.

Speaking to reporters after he had voted, Mr Erdogan said he was sad about the deaths and did not want them to become a cause for “a questioning or a judgment between political parties”.

Two other people were killed in fighting in the southern city of Gaziantep.

Fights related to local elections in several provinces also led to dozens of injuries, Turkey’s official Anadolu news agency reported.

At least 21 people were injured in southeastern Diyarbakir province from brawls over the election of neighbourhood administrators, Anadolu said.

The exact causes of the fights remained unclear.

Election campaigning was highly polarised, with Mr Erdogan and other officials using hostile rhetoric toward opposition candidates.

Sunday’s elections were a first test for Mr Erdogan since he won re-election under a new system of government that gave the presidency expanded powers.

Mr Erdogan’s ruling party has renewed an alliance with the country’s nationalist party to increase votes.

Opposition parties also coordinated strategies and put forward candidates under alliances in an effort to maximise the chances of unseating members of the Justice and Development Party, known in Turkish by the acronym AKP.

Ankara was considered the main battleground in the race and opinion polls suggested the candidate of the opposition alliance, Mansur Yavas, could end the 25-year rule of AKP and its predecessor.

A former government environment minister, Mehmet Ozhaseki, ran for mayor under the banner of Mr Erdogan and his nationalist allies.

The ruling party accused his opponent Mr Yavas of forgery and tax evasion. Mr Yavas said he was the victim of a smear campaign.

Another closely watched mayoral election was in Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city.

Mr Erdogan began his rise to power as its mayor in 1994 and said at campaign rallies that “whoever wins Istanbul, wins Turkey”.

Mr Erdogan named former prime minister Binali Yildirim to run against opposition candidate Ekrem Imamoglu in the Istanbul mayor’s race.

Before the elections, Mr Erdogan campaigned tirelessly for AKP’s candidates, framing the municipal elections taking place across Turkey as matters of “national survival”.

He also portrayed the country’s economic woes as attacks by enemies at home and abroad.

Since the previous local elections in 2014, Turkish citizens have gone to the polls in five different elections.

In last year’s presidential and parliamentary elections, Mr Erdogan garnered 52.6% of the votes and his party and its nationalist ally won 53.7% of the parliamentary vote.</s>Adair County voters will face a variety of decisions in Tuesday’s Municipal Election. Polls open at 6 a.m. and close at 7 p.m.

Registered voters are assigned a polling location based on their address. Voters who attempt to vote at the wrong polling station will be directed to the correct location.

Voters must bring a qualifying form of identification. That includes a driver’s license, along with other items like a current utility bill, state-issued ID or passport.

- Implementation of a $1 monthly fee on cellphone bills to fund local 911 services

- A bond issue for the La Plata R-II School District to fund construction of a high school cafeteria and elementary school gymnasium

Individual races include Kirksville City Council, La Plata School Board, Novinger mayor, Novinger Board of Alderman, Greentop mayor, Greentop Board of Alderman, Twin Pines Nursing Home Board of Directors, and Adair County Fire Protection District Board of Directors.
Voters head to the polls in Turkey to vote on metropolitan and district municipal mayors along with provincial and municipal councillors. The election is believed to be contested on challenging the current President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.