The June 2019 Istanbul mayoral election was held on 23 June 2019. It was a repeat of the March 2019 mayoral election, which was annulled by the Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) on 6 May 2019. The original election had resulted in a narrow 0.2% margin of victory for opposition candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu, causing the governing Justice and Development Party (AK Party) to successfully petition for a by-election.
The Nation Alliance (formed of the Republican People's Party (CHP) and the Good Party) fielded their initial candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu, who ran a positive campaign under the slogan Her Şey Çok Güzel Olacak (Everything will be fine). The governing People's Alliance (formed by the AK Party and the Nationalist Movement Party) reselected their initially unsuccessful candidate Binali Yıldırım. The non-aligned Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) did not stand their own candidate and announced their support for İmamoğlu. The election featured a televised debate between the two main candidates, for the first time in Turkey since 2002. Campaigning focused highly on rival accusations of misconduct during and after the initial March 2019 election, during which both sides alleged that they had been a victim of the other's antics.
The results showed a substantial swing in favour of İmamoğlu, who multiplied his initial 13,700-vote margin of victory 57-fold to win 54.2% of the vote against Yıldırım's 45.0%. The opposition's victory defied opinion polls, which predicted a much narrower victory, and was a record in the history of Istanbul local elections in terms of both popular vote and percentage share. İmamoğlu also won pluralities in 28 of Istanbul's 39 districts. Yıldırım, on the other hand, lost 11 districts he had won in March and saw a 4% decrease in his previous vote share, conceding defeat soon after indicative results became public. The result was seen as a huge defeat to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who had once said that if his party "lost Istanbul, we would lose Turkey." Commentators viewed the result as a backlash against Erdoğan, the initial annulment of the March vote (which was largely seen as an anti-democratic manoeuvre), economic mismanagement and negative campaigning. It was also seen as a backfire against the government's last-ditch attempt to involve the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)'s imprisoned leader Abdullah Öcalan in the process, in an attempt to convince HDP voters to boycott the election.
The opposition's landslide was characterised at the time as the "beginning of the end" for Erdoğan, with international commentators calling the re-run a huge government miscalculation that led to a potential İmamoğlu candidacy in the next scheduled presidential election. It was suggested that the scale of the government's defeat could provoke a Cabinet reshuffle and an early general election, though this did not come to pass. İmamoğlu would end up not being chosen as the opposition's presidential candidate in 2023, and Erdoğan would end up being narrowly re-elected, defeating Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.
31 March 2019 election
Election results After the local elections were held on 31 March 2019, the Chairman of the Supreme Electoral Council (YSK), Sadi Güven, announced that Ekrem İmamoğlu received 4,159,650 votes and that he was ahead of Justice and Development Party's (AK Party) Istanbul mayoral candidate Binali Yıldırım. The Istanbul Provincial Organization of the AKP demanded a re-count of invalid votes and the correction of ballot records on 2 April, which was approved by the Supreme Electoral Council. At the conclusion of the re-counting process on 17 April 2019, it was announced that Ekrem İmamoğlu had completed the election with 4,169,765 votes, 13,729 votes ahead of his rival Binali Yıldırım, who received 4,156,036 votes. On the same day, İmamoğlu began his term by receiving his certificate of election from the Supreme Electoral Council's İstanbul Provincial Electoral Council.
Objection process 31 March 2019: 2019 Turkish local elections are held. 2 April 2019: Recounts are ordered in 9 districts of Istanbul as a result of the AK Party's objections. 7 April 2019: The AK Party's demand for re-counts in all 38 districts of Istanbul is denied by the YSK. 9 April 2019: The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) applied to the YSK for the annulment of results in the Maltepe district of Istanbul. 17 April 2019: The Istanbul Provincial Election Board delivered Ekrem İmamoğlu's certificate of election. The AK Party objected to this by giving the YSK a 44-page report and three suitcases of documents. 20 April 2019: The AK Party made an additional objection regarding people removed with KHKs. This was rejected. 6 May 2019: The YSK decided that the Istanbul mayoral election shall be annulled and repeated on 23 June 2019. 8 May 2019: The Republican People's Party (CHP) and the Good Party applied to the YSK for the annulment of all elections in Istanbul, in addition to the mayoral election. 13 May 2019: The YSK rejected the CHP's and Good Party's application for the annulment of all elections in Istanbul. 22 May 2019: The YSK published the detailed ruling regarding the annulment of the Istanbul mayoral election.
Annulment of the election On 6 May 2019, in a 7-to-4 decision, the YSK ruled that the Istanbul mayoral election shall be annulled, and that it shall be repeated on 23 June 2019. This decision was based on the objections raised by the AK Party regarding the fact that despite the law, some balloting committee presidents and members were not public officials. Despite the decision, the President of the YSK Sadi Güven was one of the four members who voted against annulment. He later publicly stated that he was not in favour of renewing the election.
Electoral schedule The Supreme Electoral Council determined the electoral schedule based on its decision on 6 May 2019 to annul the original election and repeat it on 23 June 2019:
15 May 2019: The deadline for the submittal of a list of all public servants that will serve in each district to the relevant district election committee centers. 20 May 2019: The determination, based on a lottery, of the balloting committee presidents and members, from among the submitted list of public servants. 21 May 2019: The distribution of the list of the balloting committee presidents and members to political parties, if requested. 23–24 May 2019: The deadline for the submittal of possible objections regarding the make-up of the balloting committees. 24 May 2019: The deadline for the period in which political parties can change to their candidates. 25 May 2019: The deadline for decisions to be made by the district electoral councils regarding the objections to the make-up of the balloting committees. 26 May 2019: The deadline for objections regarding the decisions made by the district electoral councils to be submitted to the Istanbul Provincial Electoral Council. 27 May 2019: The announcement of the finalized candidate lists, the printing of the unified ballots and their distribution to the district electoral councils, and the beginning of distribution of the voter information documents. 29 May 2019: The completion of the establishment of the balloting committees. 13 June 2019: The beginning of election propaganda and of certain prohibitions. 16 June 2019: The deadline for the completion of distribution of the voter information documents. 18 June 2019: The annotation of information regarding restricted voters to the voter lists. 19 June 2019: The completion of the replication of the ballot box voter lists. 22 June 2019: The ending of election propaganda at 18:00. 23 June 2019: The beginning of the voting process at 8:00, and its completion at 17:00.
Electoral conduct The Supreme Electoral Council announced that the electoral roll would be exactly the same as the electors in the March 2019. Since the vote was a re-run, voters who turned 18 between 31 March and 23 June 2019 would not be included on the electoral roll. The YSK did, however, remove individuals with mental disabilities from voter lists. This was due to numerous complaints from all parties in the March local elections that mentally impaired individuals unable to exercise free thought were exploited for their vote. As a result, the Istanbul electorate fell from 10,570,939 to 10,570,354 (including deaths and convictions during this time).
Election campaign and party stances
Candidates
The nominee of the governing Justice and Development Party (AK Party) was Binali Yıldırım, a former Prime Minister of Turkey and an incumbent Member of the Grand National Assembly. As part of the People's Alliance, the AK Party's candidate had the support of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). Ekrem İmamoğlu was the candidate of the Republican People's Party (CHP), and was supported by the CHP-allied Good Party, which is a part of the Nation Alliance.
After the annulment of the 31 March elections, the Democratic Left Party (DSP) candidate Muammer Aydın, the Independent Turkey Party (BTP) candidate Selim Kotil, the Democratic Party candidate Ersan Gökgöz, the Turkish Communist Party candidate Zehra Güner Karaoğlu, the Worker's Movement Party-supported independent candidate Özge Akman, the Turkish Communist Movement-supported independent candidate Aysel Tekerek, and the independent candidate Hazer Oruç Kaya all announced that they would not stand in the upcoming election.
The Felicity Party (Saadet Party) candidate Necdet Gökçınar, the Patriotic Party (Vatan Party) candidate Mustafa İlker Yücel, and the independent candidates Doğan Duman and Muhammet Ali Canca, conversely announced that they would participate in the Istanbul mayoral election that would be repeated on 23 June 2019.
On 27 May 2019, the finalized candidate list for the 23 June 2019 election was announced. In the list announced by the Istanbul Provincial Electoral Council, there are 17 independent candidates aside from the partied candidates Ekrem İmamoğlu, Binali Yıldırım, Necdet Gökçınar, and Mustafa İlker Yücel.
Justice and Development Party
In the articles published on 9 May 2019 regarding the AK Party's strategy, it was said that the AK Party would go door-to-door to convince undecided voters and those who did not vote on 31 March, that the AK Party would soften its rhetoric, that projects regarding Istanbul and its districts would be emphasized, and that the AK Party would participate in joint rallies with the MHP. Aside from these efforts, president and AK Party leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan would join iftar dinners throughout Ramadan, make house visits to voters, and hold rallies in each of the 39 districts of Istanbul. An election coordination center was created under the scope of these strategies, and Mehmet Özhaseki, AK Party's candidate for Ankara mayor on 31 March 2019 was chosen to lead this operation.
As part of their election campaign, AK Party's goals were:
To explain the reasons for the annulment of the election to the voters in a convincing manner. To call all 2,300,000 AK Party members who are eligible to vote in Istanbul by telephone, and to remind them that they absolutely need to vote. To not use the name of the Nation Alliance candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu, but to refer to him only as "CHP's candidate". To campaign in order to reduce the image of victimhood held by the CHP due to the annulment of the election. To end the rhetoric that was used in the 31 March elections that the election would affect the survival of the government. The campaign focused on the rhetoric of stability and prosperity.Türkoğlu, D., Odabaş, M., Tunaoglu, D., & Yavaş, M. (2023). Political polarisation on social media: Competing understandings of democracy in Turkey. South European Society and Politics. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13608746.2023.2200901 To direct the 103,000 voters who voted for the Saadet Party on 31 March towards the AKP.
Campaign towards resentful AK Party voters