Turkey's Felicity (Saadet) Party won over 100,000 votes in the original March 31 election. While that tally was far behind the candidates from the ruling and main opposition parties, the slim margin that decided the first Istanbul race proved that every vote is crucial in the election.
Turkey’s election council annulled the March 31 vote, which main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu won by 13,000 votes, after the AKP complained that fraud had taken place.
The ruling party ran a divisive campaign ahead of the March 31 elections, which it called a “matter of survival” and painted as a fight between the government and its allies and “terrorists” in league with the opposition.
In the lead up to that vote, Erdoğan repeatedly accused the Felicity Party of aligning with "terrorists" over its tacit support of main opposition candidates.
On election day in March, two election observers of the Felicity Party died in a brawl with AKP members in the southeast Turkish city of Malatya.
The AKP softened its rhetoric considerably during the rerun, and has attempted to reach out to some segments of voters who were alienated by their March 31 campaign.
A week ago, the AKP's Istanbul mayoral candidate Binali Yıldırım visited Milli Gazete, and apologised for any harsh comments by his party against the Saadet Party.