The CHP currently has 37.8% of the votes and is slightly ahead of the AKP, which has 36.8%. Pro-Kurdish Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM) brings up the rear of the top three with just under 6% of the vote, while the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), which is allied with the AKP, has less than 4%.
Established in 2001, the AKP has come first in every municipal election since 2004.
The Nation Alliance, a coalition of six opposition parties running for the presidential and parliamentary elections in May 2023, was essentially dissolved after unsatisfactory voting results. In the current municipal elections, the CHP is flying solo.
Meanwhile, CHP new leader Ozgur Ozel described the preliminary outcome as a "historic result" and a "clear signal" to the incumbent government.
"Our voters made a very important decision today. Today, the voters decided to establish a new concept of governance. The Nation Alliance that we created together with our people has achieved a historic result. Those who had been ignored sent a clear signal to those who govern our country today. I want everybody to know that there are no losers in this victory. No matter for which party people voted today, I do not want them to feel like losers," Ozel said, addressing his supporters at the party headquarters.
Turks were voting on Sunday to elect mayors of 81 cities, including 30 megacities, heads of municipalities, village and district heads, and village councils.