Turkey's Ruling Party Hopeful of Overturning Istanbul Election

Binali Yildirim, the ruling AK Party’s candidate for Istanbul mayor, said he was confident his defeat in March 31 elections would be overturned as votes declared invalid are recounted this weekend.

“We believe the result in Istanbul will change,” Yildirim, Turkey’s last prime minister, told reporters in the city on Friday. The opposition CHP’s Ekrem Imamoglu now led by about 18,000 votes, Yildirim said, narrowing from 25,000 in the initial count. More than 300,000 votes were originally invalidated.