The gap between the ruling party mayoral candidate for Istanbul, Binali Yıldırım, and the opposition candidate Imamoğlu has dropped to 17,204 as of early Monday while 70 percent of the recount of votes in districts of Istanbul is completed, Republican People's Party (CHP) lawmaker Barış Yarkadaş on early Monday said on Twitter.
The governing AKP demanded a recount after it lost the mayoral race in Turkey's major economic hub, Istanbul, in last Sunday's local election to the opposition candidate Ekrem Imamoğlu with nearly 28,000 votes, according to unofficial result.
Imamoğlu since Monday has been calling on authorities to hand over him the official authorisation that will confirm his victory in Istanbul, while changing his title on social media accounts as the “mayor of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality.”
According to the unofficial results announced by the electoral board, Erdoğan’s AKP suffered defeats in five of the six most populous provinces in the country on last Sunday. The AKP challenged the results in Istanbul and Ankara.