Istanbul voters hand clear victory to CHP’s Imamoglu

The voters in Turkey's largest city rallied their support behind opposition Nation Alliance candidate Republican People's Party's (CHP) Ekrem Imamoglu in the greatly anticipated mayoral election re-run.

According to unofficial results, Imamoglu received 53.76% of the votes while his opponent, People's Alliance candidate Justice and Development Party's (AK Party) Binali Yildirim stood at 45.32%.

The vote difference between the two candidates was 707,214.

Soon after the results started coming in, Yildirim conceded defeat and said his rival Imamoglu was leading the race, congratulating him for the apparent victory.

"I'll be helping out in everything to the benefit of Istanbul," Yildirim said.