Leaders | Istanbul stands up to a bully

Opponents of Turkey’s erratic president should try harder

After an opposition victory in Istanbul, rumours swirl of a ruling-party split

Jun 29th 2019

WHAT DID he think he was playing at? When Turkey’s autocratic president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, strong-armed his country’s electoral watchdog into annulling the result of a mayoral election his party had lost in March, it looked like an obvious blunder. Surely, many observers thought, the people of Istanbul would furiously resent having their votes overruled, and flock in bigger numbers than before to support the opposition man, Ekrem Imamoglu? Unless, of course, Mr Erdogan had a sinister plan up his sleeve to rig the new election.

This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “Democracy bites back”