President Erdogan has pledged to “renew” his party after suffering his biggest blow at the ballot box in two decades.
Erdogan took the rare step of conceding defeat in Sunday’s local elections after a string of surprise victories for the secularist Republican People’s Party (CHP) in some of the president’s staunchest conservative heartlands.
The CHP took 37.74 per cent of votes across the country, narrowly ahead of Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), which took 35.49 per cent. It is the first time in the 18 elections held since the AKP came to power in 2002 that it has failed to take the biggest share of the vote.
The CHP’s gains include the western city of Bursa, Kastamonu in the Black Sea region, Kirsehir in
