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		</div><p>Turkey’s main opposition party retained its control over key cities and made huge gains elsewhere in Sunday’s local elections, preliminary results showed.</p>
<p>The outcome was a major upset to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had set his sights on retaking control of those urban areas.</p>
<p>With nearly 60% of the ballot boxes counted, incumbent mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, of the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, was leading in Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city and economic hub, according to state broadcaster TRT.</p>
<p>Mansur Yavas, the mayor of the capital Ankara, retained his seat with a large margin, the results indicated.</p>
<p>The CHP was leading in 36 of Turkey’s 81 provinces, according to the results reported by TRT.</p>
<p>The vote was seen as a barometer of President Erdogan’s popularity as he sought to win back control of key urban areas he lost to the opposition in elections five years ago.</p>
<p>The CHP’s victory in Ankara and Istanbul in 2019, had shattered Mr Erdogan’s aura of invincibility.</p>
<p>The main battleground for the 70-year-old Turkish president was Istanbul, a city of 16 million people where he was born and raised and where he began his political career as mayor in 1994.</p>
<p>The result came as a boost for the opposition, which was left divided and demoralised after a defeat to Mr Erdogan and his ruling Islamic-oriented Justice and Development Party, or AKP, in last year’s presidential and parliamentary elections.</p>
<p>“The voters decided to establish a new political order in Turkey,” CHP leader Ozgur Ozel told a crowd of jubilant supporters.</p>
<p>“Today, the voters decided to change the 22-year-old picture in Turkey and open the door to a new political climate in our country.”</p>
<p>A large crowd, meanwhile, gathered outside Ankara City Hall to celebrate Mr Yavas’ victory. “Ankara is proud of you,” supporters chanted.</p>
<p>Sinan Ulgen, director of the Istanbul-based Edam think tank, said “the surprising outcome” was due to voters wanting to punish the ruling party over the “depth of an economic malaise”.</p>
<p>Skyrocketing inflation has left many Turkish households struggling to afford basic goods.</p>
<p>AKP supporters opted to stay away from the ballot stations or voted for other parties, Mr Ulgen said.</p>
<p>“Turnout was relatively low compared to past elections,” he said.</p>
<p>“There were cross-party shifts in the vote, which did not happen in the national elections because of stronger ideological attachments. This time around, the economy prevailed over identity.”</p>
<p>About 61 million people, including more than a million first-time voters, were eligible to cast ballots for all metropolitan municipalities, town and district mayorships as well as neighbourhood administrations.</p>
<p>Turnout was about 76%, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency, compared to 87% last year.</p>
<p>Analysts said a strong showing for Mr Erdogan’s party would have hardened his resolve to usher in a new constitution – one that would reflect his conservative values and allow him to rule beyond 2028 when his current term ends.</p>
<p>Mr Erdogan, who has presided over Turkey for more than two decades – as prime minister since 2003 and president since 2014 – has been advocating for a new constitution that would put family values at the forefront.</p>
<p>Some 594,000 security personnel were on duty across the country to ensure the vote goes smoothly.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, one person was killed and 11 others hurt in the city of Diyarbakir where a dispute over the election of a neighbourhood administrator turned violent, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.</p>
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