Turkey’s top election body ordered a re-run of the Istanbul mayoral vote on Monday following the shock defeat of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party, the state news agency reported.

 

The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) won in the capital Ankara and Istanbul for the first time in 25 years in the March 31 local elections, in a major setback for Erdogan, who served as Istanbul’s mayor in the 1990s.

 

Erdogan’s ruling AKP and its nationalist MHP allies have since called for the vote in Istanbul to be re-run, citing what they say are irregularities that affected the outcome. The parties have also filed appeals to annul results in two Istanbul districts, Buyukcekmece and Maltepe, over the same claims.