Istanbul mayoral re-run: Erdogan's ruling AKP loses again

Turkey's ruling party has lost control of Istanbul after a re-run of the city's mayoral election, latest results show, BBC reported. The candidate for the main opposition party, Ekrem Imamoglu, won 54% of the vote with nearly all ballots counted.

He won a surprise victory in March which was annulled after the ruling AK party complained of irregularities. Mr Imamoglu's lead of more than 775,000 votes marks a huge increase on his victory in March, when he won by a margin of just 13,000.

His opponent, ex-PM Binali Yildirim, has conceded. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan congratulated the winner. "I congratulate Ekrem Imamoglu who has won the election based on preliminary results," he tweeted.