ISTANBUL: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AKP on Tuesday appealed against the results in Istanbul after this weekend's elections citing what it called "excessive" irregularities.
Sunday's municipal vote delivered a setback to Erdogan after preliminary tallies showed the AKP lost the capital and the economic hub Istanbul after a decade and a half in power.
Erdogan's AKP and coalition partner won more than 50 percent of the votes nationwide, but defeat in two key cities would be a blow after Turkey slipped into recession for the first time in a decade.
The AKP appeal with electoral authorities, who have two days to decide whether it has any merit, may signal further challenges from the ruling party to opposition victories in the two key cities.
"We have filed our objections with the electoral authorities in all 39 districts," AKP's Istanbul district chief Bayram Senocak told reporters. "We have identified irregularities and falsifications."
He said the party had found an "excessive" difference between votes cast at ballot stations for their candidate and the data sent to electoral authorities.
Istanbul, the largest city in the country, was a key prize for Erdogan and he had fielded his former premier and loyalist Binali Yildirim as candidate for mayor.
But Istanbul was a tight race and both Yildirim and the opposition CHP candidate Ekrem Imamoglu claimed victory in the early hours of Monday.
Electoral authorities on Monday announced Imamoglu was ahead by 28,000 votes with nearly all ballot boxes tallied, prompting AKP officials to challenge to the result.
Imamoglu had 48.79 percent of the votes while Yildirim had 48.52 percent, Anadolu state news agency reported on Tuesday, citing preliminary results.
Imamoglu on Tuesday travelled to Ankara to lay a wreath at the mausoleum of modern Turkey's founder Musfafa Kemal Ataturk in a highly symbolic gesture Erdogan often does himself soon after his election wins.
"Had the other party won, I would have said 'congratulations Mr Binali Yildirim', which I do not say because I am the one who won," Imamoglu told reporters.
"They are behaving like a kid who has been deprived of his toy."
AKP party spokesman Omer Celik on Monday had said they had found discrepancies between reports from polling stations and vote counts in both Ankara and Istanbul.
Erdogan, himself a former Istanbul mayor, had campaigned hard in the city. But the ruling party may have been stung by the economy with Turkey in recession for the first time since 2009 and inflation in double digits.
Erdogan's AKP challenges Istanbul results in Turkey election
Erdogan's AKP challenges Istanbul results in Turkey election
- Sunday's municipal vote delivered a setback to Erdogan after preliminary tallies showed the AKP lost the capital
Egypt’s El-Sisi congratulates Putin on election win
CAIRO: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi congratulated Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin Tuesday on his landslide re-election, his spokesman said.
El-Sisi “extended his sincere congratulations” to Putin, whose election for a fifth term with 87.28 percent of the vote “reflects the confidence of the Russian people,” according to the presidency’s statement.
El-Sisi “wished him success and the Russian people further progress and prosperity.”
Putin had run effectively unchallenged in the election, with only loyalist candidates allowed on the ballot in a process that Washington dismissed as “incredibly undemocratic.”
El-Sisi had himself won a third term with 89.6 percent of the vote in a December election in which he ran against a small field of relative unknowns.
Since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Cairo has maintained close ties with Putin, despite calls by Western allies to stand with Ukraine.
Egypt has contented itself with calls for peace as it has prioritized its own economic interests.
The Arab world’s most populous country has long been heavily dependent on food imports, most of which came from Russia or Ukraine before the war.
Their disruption by the conflict sent prices soaring in a massive blow to the Egyptian economy that has left Cairo in a delicate balancing act.
In an online ceremony in January, El-Sisi and Putin hailed a “new phase” in the countries’ relations as they launched construction of a fourth generating unit at Egypt’s first nuclear power plant, Al-Dabaa, built by Russia’s state atomic energy corporation Rosatom.
Tunisia-Libya border crossing closed due to clashes
- Libya’s interior ministry said “outlaws” had attacked the border, which sees Libyans often going to Tunisia for medical treatment
TUNIS: Tunisia and Libya have closed a major border crossing at Ras Jdir due to armed clashes, Tunisian state TV and Libyan authorities said.
Libya’s interior ministry said in a statement on Tuesday that “outlaws” had attacked the border, which sees a large flow of Libyans often going to Tunisia for medical treatment and trucks with goods coming in the opposite direction.
“This action carried out by these outlaw groups will not be tolerated, and legal measures and the most severe penalties will be taken against those involved,” the Tripoli-based ministry said, without giving further details.
Libya has had little peace since a 2011 uprising and is split between eastern and western factions, with rival administrations governing each area.
Unverified footage on social media showed a burning vehicle at Ras Jdir and people running, with the sound of gunfire.
The ministry said on Sunday it had deployed security forces at the border to combat smuggling and insecurity.
Tunisia’s Tataouine Radio said late on Monday that Tunisia closed the crossing for the safety of citizens going to Libya.
Qatar: An Israeli operation in Rafah will result in ‘atrocities’ that have not been seen
DOHA: An Israeli operation in the Gaza Strip’s southern city of Rafah would result in major destruction and “atrocities” that have not been seen in the conflict, Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said on Tuesday.
Qatar is cautiously optimistic about the Gaza ceasefire talks, he added during a press conference in Doha.
UN reports a 35 percent increase in people affected by violence in South Sudan
- There is a 35 percent increase in the number of victims reported from the previous quarter
- Violence caused by ethnic tensions and disputes over resources such as land has increased in various parts of the country
The UN Mission in South Sudan, or UNMISS, documented 233 incidents of violence affecting 862 people. Of that, 406 were killed, 293 were injured, 100 were abducted and 63 subjected to conflict-related sexual violence, it said in a report released Monday.
It was a 35 percent increase in the number of victims reported from the previous quarter.
South Sudan is to hold elections later this year, the first since a 2018 peace deal between President Salva Kiir and his former rival, Riek Machar, that ended a five-year conflict that killed hundreds of thousands.
Violence caused by ethnic tensions and disputes over resources such as land has increased in various parts of the country in recent months, particularly in the oil-rich region of Abyei.
The head of UNMISS, Nicholas Haysom, said it is “doing all it can to prevent violence and build peace in the affected areas” and urged the South Sudan government to intervene and “resolve underlying grievances and build peace.”
It said it has conducted at least 10,000 peacekeeping patrols by land, air and boat over the past year.
South Sudan, one of the world’s youngest nations, also suffers from drought and flooding, making living conditions difficult for residents.
The World Food Program in its latest country brief said South Sudan “continues to face a dire humanitarian crisis” due to violence, economic instability, climate change and an influx of people fleeing the conflict in neighboring Sudan.
Israel hits Hezbollah arms depots in Syria: war monitor
- Strikes have increased since Israel’s war with Palestinian militant group Hamas, a Hezbollah ally, began on October 7
BEIRUT: Israeli raids hit warehouses storing weapons for the Lebanese Hezbollah group in Syria Tuesday, a war monitor said, as a Syrian military source said air defenses had intercepted several missiles.
Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes in Syria since civil war broke out in 2011, targeting Iran-backed forces including Hezbollah as well as Syrian army positions.
The strikes have increased since Israel’s war with Palestinian militant group Hamas, a Hezbollah ally, began on October 7.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the latest strikes near the capital Damascus Tuesday had destroyed weapons and ammunition, causing secondary explosions and fires.
A military source quoted by Syrian state media said Israeli “air aggression” had targeted several military positions near Damascus.
“Our air defenses took action and shot down several missiles,” the source added.
The Britain-based Observatory said it was the second such strike in two days, coming after raids on Sunday hit another Hezbollah weapons depot and a separate site near Damascus.
Earlier this month, an Israeli strike reportedly killed an Iranian Revolutionary Guard and two other people in Banias on Syria’s Mediterranean coast.
The Israeli army said last week it had hit about 4,500 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon and Syria over the past five months.
Israel rarely comments on individual strikes but has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran to expand its presence in Syria.