Just over a month after Turkey's main opposition scored a stunning victory in local elections in Istanbul, the residents of the country's largest city are going back to the polls. On May 6, Turkey's Supreme Election Board (YSK) canceled the March 31 Istanbul mayoral poll results in a 7-4 vote on account of "unlawful appointments to some ballot box boards," ordering new elections for June 23. Ekrem Imamoglu, the Republican People's Party (CHP) candidate who assumed office just over two weeks ago, will now have to return his mandate for the mayoral post while Istanbul Gov. Ali Yerlikaya and Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) handpick an interim mayor to govern the city until the new election. In pushing for a rerun, however, the AKP is very much choosing possible political gain at the cost of probable economic pain.
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