The June 23 rerun of the mayoral election in Istanbul ended in a big debacle for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Ekrem Imamoglu of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), who ran for the CHP-led Nation’s Alliance, beat the AKP’s Binali Yildirim by more than 800,000 votes, a huge increase from his original winning margin of some 13,000 votes. Analysts said many AKP supporters irked by their party’s refusal to recognize Imamoglu’s March 31 victory switched sides, contributed to his resounding victory in the rerun.

The contest for local dominance in Istanbul, Turkey’s biggest city and economic hub, became also a vote of confidence in the AKP in a sense; hence, the defeat is widely seen as a sign that the party’s political might is on a general decline.

June 24, the day after the Istanbul vote, marked the first anniversary of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s election as Turkey’s first head of state under a new governance system concentrating power in the president’s hands. The one-year record of his executive presidency, which many see as a “one-man regime,” is hardly flattering, especially in economic terms. 

The March 31 local polls, coupled with the rerun vote in Istanbul, have only increased pressure on Erdogan’s government, which has been grappling with economic recession and then crisis since last summer, when it assumed its new powers.