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.
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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
Sweeping US defense bill passes Congress, including real of Syria sanctions
WASHINGTON: The US Senate voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to advance a $901 billion bill setting policy for the Pentagon, sending the massive piece of legislation to the White House, which has said President Donald Trump will sign it into law. The fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, is a compromise between separate measures passed earlier this year in the House of Representatives and Senate. It authorizes a record $901 billion in annual military spending, with a 4 percent pay raise for the troops. It also authorizes reforms to the system for acquiring military equipment and includes efforts to boost competitiveness with US archrivals China and Russia.
The Senate backed the bill by 77 to 20, with strong support from both parties. Two of the “no” votes were from Republican senators Mike Lee and Rand Paul.
“This will be the 65th year in a row, the 65th consecutive year, that Congress has come together across the aisle and across two chambers to send the president a bill designed to sustain and strengthen the national defense,” said Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the Republican Senate Armed Services Committee chairman. The House passed the bill last week, by 312 to 112, also with broad bipartisan support. In a break with Trump, whose fellow Republicans hold majorities in both the House and Senate, this year’s NDAA includes several provisions to boost security in Europe, despite Trump’s release earlier this month of a National Security Strategy seen as friendly to Russia and a reassessment of the US relationship with Europe.
The fiscal 2026 NDAA provides $800 million for Ukraine — $400 million in each of the next two years — as part of the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which pays US companies for weapons for Ukraine’s military.
It also authorizes the Baltic Security Initiative and provides $175 million to support Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia’s defense. And it limits the Department of Defense’s ability to drop the number of US forces in Europe to fewer than 76,000 and bars the US European Commander from giving up the title of NATO Supreme Commander.
WINS FOR BOTH PARTIES
Members of Congress take great pride in having passed the NDAA every year for more than six decades.
The measure’s record price tag is $8 billion more than Trump had requested. This month a handful of Republicans and Democrats called for the addition of a provision to strengthen military helicopter safety rules, following a fatal crash between an Army Black Hawk and an American Airlines passenger jet that killed 67 people.
Anger over that issue was not strong enough to derail the NDAA. Senate leaders have promised to address it in upcoming legislation. The NDAA also repeals the tough “Caesar” sanctions imposed on Syria under its former leader Bashar Assad. And it has a provision to withhold a chunk of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget if he does not provide Congress with unedited videos of military strikes on boats in the southern Caribbean and eastern Pacific. The Trump administration has said the strikes are directed at Venezuelan drug-traffickers. The Senate vote came a day after Trump ordered a blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, his latest move to increase pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government.
It repeals the 1991 and 2002 Authorizations for the Use of Military Force (AUMFs) against Iraq, an attempt to reassert Congress’ role in deciding to send troops into combat.
During his first term, Trump said the 2002 AUMF provided legal authority for the 2020 killing in Iraq of senior Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani.
The NDAA does not include funding to change the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War, an idea championed by Trump but a change that cannot be formalized without congressional approval.
However, it includes some of the “culture war” efforts popular with politicians on the US right. One measure bars transgender women from participating in athletic programs designated for women at US military academies.
It also codifies into law executive orders by Trump ending diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at the Pentagon.
The Senate backed the bill by 77 to 20, with strong support from both parties. Two of the “no” votes were from Republican senators Mike Lee and Rand Paul.
“This will be the 65th year in a row, the 65th consecutive year, that Congress has come together across the aisle and across two chambers to send the president a bill designed to sustain and strengthen the national defense,” said Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the Republican Senate Armed Services Committee chairman. The House passed the bill last week, by 312 to 112, also with broad bipartisan support. In a break with Trump, whose fellow Republicans hold majorities in both the House and Senate, this year’s NDAA includes several provisions to boost security in Europe, despite Trump’s release earlier this month of a National Security Strategy seen as friendly to Russia and a reassessment of the US relationship with Europe.
The fiscal 2026 NDAA provides $800 million for Ukraine — $400 million in each of the next two years — as part of the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which pays US companies for weapons for Ukraine’s military.
It also authorizes the Baltic Security Initiative and provides $175 million to support Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia’s defense. And it limits the Department of Defense’s ability to drop the number of US forces in Europe to fewer than 76,000 and bars the US European Commander from giving up the title of NATO Supreme Commander.
WINS FOR BOTH PARTIES
Members of Congress take great pride in having passed the NDAA every year for more than six decades.
The measure’s record price tag is $8 billion more than Trump had requested. This month a handful of Republicans and Democrats called for the addition of a provision to strengthen military helicopter safety rules, following a fatal crash between an Army Black Hawk and an American Airlines passenger jet that killed 67 people.
Anger over that issue was not strong enough to derail the NDAA. Senate leaders have promised to address it in upcoming legislation. The NDAA also repeals the tough “Caesar” sanctions imposed on Syria under its former leader Bashar Assad. And it has a provision to withhold a chunk of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget if he does not provide Congress with unedited videos of military strikes on boats in the southern Caribbean and eastern Pacific. The Trump administration has said the strikes are directed at Venezuelan drug-traffickers. The Senate vote came a day after Trump ordered a blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving Venezuela, his latest move to increase pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government.
It repeals the 1991 and 2002 Authorizations for the Use of Military Force (AUMFs) against Iraq, an attempt to reassert Congress’ role in deciding to send troops into combat.
During his first term, Trump said the 2002 AUMF provided legal authority for the 2020 killing in Iraq of senior Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani.
The NDAA does not include funding to change the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War, an idea championed by Trump but a change that cannot be formalized without congressional approval.
However, it includes some of the “culture war” efforts popular with politicians on the US right. One measure bars transgender women from participating in athletic programs designated for women at US military academies.
It also codifies into law executive orders by Trump ending diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at the Pentagon.
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