ISTANBUL -- President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party was leading Sunday in municipal elections that he has depicted as a fight for Turkey's survival.
With more than 90 percent of the more than 194,000 ballot boxes counted, according to state broadcaster TRT, Erdogan's conservative, Islamic-based party had nearly 45 percent of the votes. That was well ahead of the secular-oriented main opposition party, the Republican People's Party, which scored 30 percent of the vote.
However, the opposition regained control of the capital, Ankara, where Erdogan's ruling party and its predecessor have held the mayoral seat for 25 years. Mansur Yavas, a 63-year-old lawyer, received more than 50 percent of the votes, according to TRT. Erdogan's party was also at risk of defeat in Istanbul, the nation's largest city.
Erdogan claimed victory overall, but the election marked the first major electoral setback of his 17 years in power.
"Please do not be heartbroken with this result," Erdogan told supporters in an address today. "We will see how they are going to administer."
All eyes were on the race for mayor of Istanbul. Erdogan's candidate, former Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, was reported to be in a virtual tie with the opposition candidate, Ekrem Imamoglu. Imamoglu said he had, in fact, won by a substantial margin.
Rusen Cakir, a veteran commentator, said on Twitter that the turnaround was as historic as Erdogan's arrival on the political stage, when, as an Islamist and former political prisoner, he first won the mayorship of Istanbul.
"The election today is as historic as the local election in 1994," Cakir said. "It's the announcement of a page that was opened 25 years ago and is now being closed."
If Erdogan's candidate loses the Istanbul race, it would be a severe blow to his party.
"While losing Istanbul would be a nuclear defeat for Erdogan," said Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, "losing Ankara, which is shorthand for political power and government, is a pretty significant loss."
Economic prosperity provided Erdogan and his party with previous election victories. But after years of impressive growth, Turkey entered a recession in March 2018. Unemployment is more than 10 percent and as high as 30 percent among young people. The Turkish lira lost 28 percent of its value in 2018 and continues to fall. Inflation has reached 20 percent in recent months.
Sunday's elections were the first test for Erdogan since he won re-election under a new system of government that gave the presidency expanded powers.
Erdogan's ruling party has renewed an alliance with the country's nationalist party to increase votes. Opposition parties also coordinated strategies and put forward candidates under alliances in an effort to maximize the chances of unseating members of his Justice and Development Party.
Before the elections, Erdogan campaigned tirelessly for his party's candidates, framing the municipal elections taking place across Turkey as matters of "national survival."
Erdogan built his popularity on providing local services such as garbage collection and mass transport. But he adopted a negative tone on the campaign trail this year. He threatened lawsuits, accused the opposition of criminality or terrorism and whipped up nationalist anger at rallies. Warning of a clash of civilizations, he even played edited segments of a video of the mass shooting at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Information for this article was contributed by Zeynep Bilginsoy and Suzan Fraser of The Associated Press; and by Carlotta Gall of The New York Times.
A Section on 04/01/2019