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Turkey’s electoral commission keeps public guessing over Istanbul result

Turkey's Supreme Electoral Commission has given into some the ruling party's demands in Istanbul, where a post-game battle is raging over the mayorship.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a rally of Justice and Development Party (AK Party) as part of the local election campaign in Ankara, Turkey, on March 28, 2019. - Local elections in Turkey's capital and the country's overall 81 provinces are scheduled for March 31, 2019. (Photo by Adem ALTAN / AFP)        (Photo credit should read ADEM ALTAN/AFP/Getty Images)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a rally of the Justice and Development Party as part of the local election campaign in Ankara, Turkey, on March 28, 2019. — ADEM ALTAN/AFP/Getty Images

The cloud of uncertainty cloaking Istanbul’s future government has yet to clear as Turkey’s Supreme Electoral Commission (YSK) delivered mixed signals on demands by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) for a rerun of the March 31 polls in the country’s largest city.

The body convened for a second day running to weigh the AKP petition to invalidate the ballot that gave the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) candidate Ekrem Imamoglu a narrow victory. The opposition took heart when the YSK rejected the AKP’s claim that some 14,712 former civil servants sacked under emergency decrees in the wake of the failed 2016 coup were ineligible to vote and should not be counted.

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