Yıldırım also told main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu to be patient and respect the electoral council’s decision after the AKP demanded a recount of votes that had been rendered void.
“The duty to investigate and decide is with the electoral council. The council is in charge of the elections. İmamoğlu should understand this. I have said openly since the first day, whoever receives the official mayor’s certificate has got the job,” German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle quoted Yıldırım as saying on Wednesday evening.
“We’re still at the beginning of the process,” Yıldırım went on to say. “I’m watching İmamoğlu’s attitude aghast. What’s the hurry?”
It was Yıldırım who declared himself the winner on Sunday night, before the Supreme Electoral Council had finished its count. However, İmamoğlu spent a frantic night rejecting his rival’s claims to victory and calling on the state-run Anadolu Agency, the main source for news on the count, to update its Istanbul tally, which remained frozen after Yıldırım's declaration.
The next morning, as posters celebrating Yıldırım’s victory went up around Istanbul, the council said the final count had put his CHP rival ahead by over 25,000 votes.
İmamoğlu has left no doubt that he considers himself the mayor of Istanbul despite the AKP’s objections to the vote count, and the opposition politician has received congratulations from Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo, the Socialist Local Representatives in Europe and others.
The election results also spurred U.S. State Department spokesperson Robert Palladino to encourage Turkey’s ruling party to accept the “legitimate election results” during a press briefing on Tuesday.
“Getting foreign mayors to call you, and receiving messages of support from foreign countries is irritating the Turkish nation. You’ve no right to do this,” Yıldırım said.
İmamoğlu quickly returned fire on Wednesday evening, telling Yıldırım he had been "saddened" by his words.
"The nation's laughing thanks to me. Children are running up and hugging me. We won't irritate anyone. I wish you'd spared a single sentence for Anadolu Agency, which really has irritated the country," he said.
The loss of Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city with around one fifth of the country’s population and a third of its GDP, is considered a serious blow to the AKP, which has held the city, either directly or through affiliated politicians, for 25 years.
The AKP has said it has detected serious inconsistencies in last Sunday’s elections, and demanded recounts in districts across the city. Meanwhile, pro-government media figures have described the opposition victory as a “coup” against the Turkish government.