Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) formally demanded a rerun today of Istanbul’s mayoral race in what is seen as a last-ditch attempt to reverse the results that gave the opposition candidate a narrow victory. The move follows two weeks of appeals and recounts in the country’s financial capital amid claims of fraud by the AKP.

AKP deputy chair Ali Ihsan Yavuz repeated the fraud allegations as he announced the move. AKP officials brought three suitcases full of documents purportedly documenting irregularities to the headquarters of the Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) in Ankara.

Why it matters: The decision for a rerun was clearly made by Erdogan, who seems determined to cling to power in Istanbul. Controlling the city’s mayor office helps finance a multi-billion-dollar patronage network that has allowed the AKP to govern alone since 2002. And it was likely made from the get-go. During the past two weeks of opposition candidate Ekrem Imamoglu tirelessly campaigning to get his victory recognized, Erdogan’s propaganda machine has run full time to discredit the result and repeat the claims he made throughout the campaign: that the opposition were traitors and terrorists in the service of foreign powers bent on wrecking the country.

Nicholas Danforth, a senior non-resident fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, noted, “When accusing your opponents of treason isn’t enough to win an election, it can still lay the groundwork for trying reverse the results.” The trouble, though, he told Al-Monitor, is that “while not all of the AKP’s supporters appear comfortable with the course the party is taking, they’re no longer able to effectively object.”