Turkey's supreme election commission decided on Tuesday to reconsider tens of thousands of votes after it announced three weeks ago that opposition candidate Akram Emamoglu in the Greater Istanbul municipality would win the ruling Justice and Development Party candidate Ben Ali Yildirim.
The Electoral Commission announced that it would reconsider the votes of 41,132 voters and polling station heads who were not government employees.
The decision of the Supreme Elections Committee follows the extraordinary objection made by the Justice and Development Party (AKP), demanding the re-election of the Istanbul mayor.
In its objection, the AKP claims 2,308 votes for people who are not entitled to vote according to law, 1,229 people are dead, and 10,000 people are in prison and their voices are elsewhere.
"There are suspicions that are stuck in the elections, and we did not get rid of them," deputy head of the party Ali Ihsan Yawoz said in a press statement after presenting the objection in Ankara.
The candidate of the Republican People's Party Akram Emamoglu received on 17 April the document of the Istanbul mayor of the election commission in the city, after the results showed that he received 4 million 169 thousand and 765 votes, in exchange for the candidate of the Justice and Development Party, Ben Ali Yildirim, 4 million and 156 Alpha and 36 votes.
On March 31, Turkey witnessed municipal elections with a participation rate of about 85%.