Politics
Turkey Pays the Price for Erdogan’s Istanbul Election Do-Over
Its currency hit a seven-month low after the election board invalidated the opposition CHP party’s victory.
Supporters of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu react as they wait for him during a protest against the rerun of the mayoral election on May 6, 2019.
Photographer: Bulent Kilic/AFP/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
Late on May 6, Turkey’s election board invalidated the results of a March mayoral election that cost President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party control of Istanbul. The decision sent stocks tumbling, and the opposition party called the move a coup.
Erdogan has been consolidating power for the better part of the past decade. In 2017 a constitutional referendum granted him authority to appoint ministers and judges and put much of the country’s economic policy at his discretion. Last year, the day after he was sworn in to a second term, he named his son-in-law finance minister.