Turkey's main opposition party seeks recount of poll results in AnkaraApril 3, 2014 - 15:07 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkey's main opposition party Republican People's Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, or CHP) is hopeful an internal recount of votes from the March 30 local polls will help reverse a victory for the ruling party in the capital Ankara, but a final verdict from electoral authorities is likely to take weeks, Reuters reports. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's Islamist-rooted AK Party largely dominated Turkey's electoral map on the local polls, keeping control of the main cities, including the financial center Istanbul. A reversal of the Ankara result would be little more than a consolation prize for the opposition, who failed to dent Erdogan's support nationally, in a vote that became a referendum on his rule as he battles allegations of corruption. Erdogan dismisses the allegations as politically motivated. No official results have been announced, but informal tallies from Turkish news channels put Erdogan's AK Party at 45 percent nationwide, compared to CHP's 28 percent. In Ankara AK Party's candidate and incumbent mayor Melih Gokcek secured 44.6 percent of the votes, narrowly beating CHP nominee Mansur Yavas on 43.8 percent, according to provisional electoral board results. Since Monday, hundreds of volunteers, mostly students, have been comparing and recounting votes for CHP after widespread allegations of irregularities spread on social media. "We are confident that our candidate has won this race," a source at CHP's mayoral campaign said. "They're trying to take it away from us by irregularities created in front of computer screens." Results from the internal recount were expected later on Thursday, the source added, according to Reuters. Turkey's Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) said it would consider all the challenges before announcing a final result, a process likely to take weeks. The streets around the YSK building in Ankara were blocked by police on Thursday, April 3, after thousands of protesters calling for a recount had been dispersed by water cannon earlier in the week. Related links: Top stories Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev arrived in Moscow on April 22 to hold talks with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". Partner news | Concept to complete Yerevan Cascade discussed at city hall A conceptual proposal to complete the Cascade complex in downtown Yerevan has been presented by Jean-Michel Wilmotte. Pashinyan visits flood-hit region Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Saturday, June 8 visited the disaster area in the Lori province. €3.5 mln EU grant to support justice reforms in Armenia The European Union has paid €3.5 mln grant to Armenia within a €11mln program on Support to Justice Reforms. Yerevan reacts to Baku’s proposal to see Minsk Group abolition Alen Simonyan has declared that Armenia is taking steps aimed at concluding a peace treaty with Azerbaijan. |