Turkey's ruling party loses control of Istanbul

Supporters of Ekrem Imamoglu.
(Image credit: Burak Kara/Getty Images)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) took a hit on Sunday, losing the re-run of Istanbul's mayoral election.

Preliminary results show Ekrem Imamoglu of the secularist Republican People's Party, Turkey's main opposition party, won 54 percent of the vote. Imamoglu also won the first election in March, but the results were thrown out after AKP claimed there were irregularities. On Sunday night, Imamoglu vowed to "work in harmony" with Erdogan, and said the people of Istanbul are "opening up a new page" and "on this new page, there will be justice, equality, love."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.