ANKARA, Turkey —  p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 16.0px Verdana; color: #1e497d; -webkit-text-stroke: #1e497d} span.s1 {font-kerning: none} The interview had ended. The digital recorder was turned off. But as Al-Monitor prepared to leave his office, the interviewee said something that was not for attribution: “If (President Recep Tayyip) Erdogan loses in these elections, Turkey will have a hard time.”

Erdogan did lose in the local elections of March 31. Not nationwide — where his Justice and Development Party (AKP) came home with 44% of the vote — but in the biggest cities of the country, Ankara, Izmir and Istanbul. In Istanbul, the recounting of votes was continuing.

And the hard time is beginning. Before boarding a plane to Russia this morning, Erdogan told reporters that “organized crime” had been at work in the polling for Istanbul. If the Supreme Electoral Council finds that “the voters’ will hasn’t been clearly established, or observes grave irregularities, that would necessitate a repeat vote,” he said. Americans re-run elections “when there is a 1 percentage point of difference in problematic votes,” he claimed. In fact, election do-overs are rare in the United States.

While last week the president was saying he would accept the electoral council’s judgment on the Istanbul count, today he made it quite clear what the council should do. As Bloomberg put it, Erdogan “all but told the High Election Board to hold a new poll.”