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ISTANBUL A last-ditch effort by President Recep Tayyip Erdogans governing party to annul the election for mayor of Istanbul has opened wide divisions in the partys rank and file and with its nationalist allies, as even the president has come under unusual attack.

These tensions, including an ugly physical assault on an opposition lawmaker, have underscored just how severe a blow the loss of Istanbul, still to be officially confirmed, has inflicted on Mr. Erdogans once seemingly solid power structure.

For the first time in 25 years, since Mr. Erdogan first won power as mayor of Istanbul in 1994, his Justice and Development Party, or A.K.P., has lost control of his home city and power base, along with four other major cities, including the capital, Ankara.

The party has mounted an extraordinary appeal to have the Istanbul election canceled and a new election held. Yet it remains deeply divided about the best way forward.

Supporters and opponents of the party are warning that an annulment with a new election has steep risks in itself and may in fact only compound the political fallout for the president.

The three-week-long dispute over the election results has brought no reprieve to Turkeys economic woes, and politicians and analysts on all sides predict that a do-over of the election would risk social chaos.

Opposition supporters, whose candidate, Ekrem Imamoglu, has already taken up office as Istanbuls mayor, are still camping out at election counting centers and are expected to protest any redo.

A second election would raise the prospect of further repression and legal wrangles, and a prolonged struggle could spark another crash of confidence in Turkeys economy.

The Turkish lira, which lost 30 percent of its value last year, dipped again toward record lows this week, recording 5.9 to the dollar on Thursday. Unemployment has risen to nearly 14 percent, and the government depleted its reserves propping up the currency in the run up to the March 31 election.

Mr. Erdogan has already come under attack from within his own party, revealing the animosities beneath his increasingly authoritarian presidential rule.

Ahmet Davutoglu, a former foreign minister, in a rare public statement posted on his Facebook page, criticized the governments handling of the economy, as well as the new presidential system that has given Mr. Erdogan enhanced powers.

But he saved his most scathing criticism for the presidents inner circle, which, he said, sees itself above the committees of our party and aims to rule the party like a parallel structure.

Our country cannot be left to the concerns for the future of a narrow and self-seeking group who are slaves to their ambitions, he wrote.

That group is believed to have pushed hardest to redo the election in Istanbul, which has been a source of power, prestige and great wealth for the president, his family and the ruling clique.

The group is led by Mr. Erdogans son-in-law Berat Albayrak, 41, who was promoted to minister of finance and treasury last year. The interior minister, Suleyman Soylu, 49, has also emerged as an aggressive player.

Mr. Davutoglu, a charismatic ideologue who was sidelined after Mr. Erdogan dropped him from his cabinet in 2016, also criticized Mr. Erdogans alliance with the Nationalist Movement Party.

The party provided a critical alliance for Mr. Erdogan in last years presidential and parliamentary elections and in last months local elections.

But since the Istanbul election, its leader, Devlet Bahceli, has stoked emotions further with a speech criticizing the opposition leader and urging the High Election Council to order a rerun as a matter of national survival.

The tensions peaked last weekend when a mob assaulted Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the opposition Republican Peoples Party, at a funeral for Turkish soldiers.

Mr. Kilicdaroglu was punched and pushed by a crowd after the prayer ceremony in an attack that has shocked many Turks because of the ugly nationalism on display.

The opposition leader, a member of the Allevi minority, was in danger of being lynched, according to his party, corralled in a house as members of the crowd called to burn it down. He had to be evacuated by security forces in an armored vehicle.

The man who punched Mr. Kilicdaroglu was found to be a member of Mr. Erdogans party, which has promised disciplinary action.

Mr. Kilicdaroglu has alleged the attack was planned beforehand and said the aim was to make his party back out of the alliance that brought his party apparent success in the election in Istanbul.

That alliance included a tacit understanding with the pro-Kurdish Peoples Democratic Party, which Mr. Erdogan has often accused of being linked to a designated terrorist group.

The attack against me is an attack against our unity, Mr. Kilicdaroglu said at a rally after the attack. They think, If we attack, will he give up? Whatever you do, I will not give up.

An investigation by his party has found that batons were handed out by one man from a rooftop, that piles of stones and barrels had been placed to block his exit from the funeral, and that the police had evacuated him as they learned of the mob calling in reinforcements from other villages, the opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet reported Thursday.

Ali Sirmen, a columnist with the same newspaper, blamed Mr. Erdogan for stoking the tension by relentlessly accusing the opposition of siding with terrorists during the election campaign.

Those who sow the wind have begun to reap the whirlwind, Mr. Sirmen wrote. Instead of debating who was at fault, now is the time to talk about what needs to be done to prevent a civil war.

Mr. Erdogan and Mr. Soylu, the interior minister, have both said the attack stemmed from the high emotions running at the funeral.

But analysts close to the government said the attack reflected a battle within the ruling alliance, between those who want to maintain tension in order to force a rerun of the election, and senior heads in the party who wanted to calm things down.

Naci Bostanc, leader of the A.K.P. parliamentary group, deplored the attack on Mr. Kilidaroglu as never acceptable in a speech at the parliaments opening session on April 23. Turkey needs to overcome every kind of tension with the line of reason and responsibility, he said.

Those who were stoking the tension were trying to sabotage an idea floated by Mr. Erdogan for a Turkey alliance to unite Turks after a bruising election campaign, wrote Muharrem Sarikaya, a columnist for the news channel Haberturk on Thursday.

A group inside the AK Party is uncomfortable that the masses have been filled with negative energy, he wrote. They are not content that the tension is being carried to such a high level.

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Erdogans Party Is Deeply Divided by Push to Redo Istanbul ...

It's "a source of pressure on the currency as it raises the risk that the government continues to be distracted by the elections" at a time when Ankara should be providing "more details around the fiscal program, plans to boost net (foreign exchange) reserves, transparency around the recap of the banking sector and inflation numbers needed to stabilize sentiment around Turkey," she told CNBC on Wednesday.

Erdogan has espoused keeping interest rates down despite rising inflation, currently at more than 19 percent. Investors fear he will continue to pursue populist monetary policy after his party's unprecedented defeat in the local elections.

But more than the election results themselves, it is the substance of an economic reform package that is needed to calm markets, experts say. That effort has so far not gone well.

Of note, an investor discussion with Turkish Finance Minister Berat Albayrak during the IMF Spring Meetings in Washington DC last week received decidedly negative reviews.

Investors described Turkish officials as unprepared and lacking details, and a J.P. Morgan survey carried out during the event revealed that more than 80% of investors did not have confidence in Ankara's ability to turn things around.

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Turkey's economy is spiraling as Erdogan's AKP requests ...

ISTANBUL The party of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey applied to the countrys election commission on Tuesday for a rerun of the Istanbul mayors race, after two weeks of appeals and recounting of ballots still showed the opposition candidate ahead.

The application for a rerun is seen as a last-ditch attempt by the governing party to avoid losing control of Istanbul, Turkeys largest city and financial center. A defeat in Istanbul would deal a significant blow to Mr. Erdogan, who has been in power for 18 years. Party officials on Tuesday delivered three cases of documents in support of their application.

The 15 million residents of Istanbul have been awaiting a result in the closely run mayoral race between a former prime minister and close ally of Mr. Erdogan, Binali Yildirim, and the opposition Republican Peoples Partys candidate, Ekrem Imamoglu.

Mr. Imamoglu remained in the lead by about 13,000 votes with the recounting and inspection of invalid ballots down to a final district in the opposition-held suburb of Maltepe, in eastern Istanbul. The count in Maltepe is expected to be completed on Tuesday or Wednesday, and barring any further developments, Mr. Imamoglu looked likely to be confirmed as the new mayor.

But the appeal by Mr. Erdogans party, Justice and Development, may forestall that. After submitting the application for a do over, Ali Ihsan Yavuz, the partys deputy leader, told reporters outside the headquarters of the High Election Council in the capital, Ankara, that 85 percent of the mistakes detected in the voting were against his party. He added that the irregularities included 16,000 votes for Justice and Development having been erroneously recorded for other parties.

There is complete organized irregularity and complete election corruption, he said. It shows us the will of the nation was snatched away.

Officials from Mr. Erdogans party, Justice and Development, have been saying for several days that as a final resort they would lodge an extraordinary application for a rerun of the race because of what they called numerous and grave irregularities. A decision from the election council could come within days, and a new vote would be held on June 2 if the governing partys application were accepted, officials have said.

Eleven judges sit on the board of the High Election Council, elected by judges of the Supreme Court and the State Council. The judiciary in Turkey has come under increasing government control in recent years as hundreds of judges, prosecutors and lawyers have been imprisoned or purged from their jobs since a failed coup.

At a news briefing on Monday, Mr. Yildirim said he would support a rerun. He compared the vote to rotten meat and said there existed serious irregularities, serious corruption, and serious findings that mar the election.

His opponent, Mr. Imamoglu, said at a news briefing of his own that there were no grounds to support the application for a fresh vote. To declare the election void was to disrespect the law, he said, adding, The invalid ballots are counted, and it is over.

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Ankara (AFP) - President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday accused the US and Europe of "meddling" in Turkey's affairs after statements from Western allies following his ruling party's challenge to local election results.

Erdogan and his AKP suffered an upset in Sunday's ballot when results showed the party lost the capital Ankara and was narrowly defeated in Istanbul, the country's largest city and economic hub.

While the United States has called on Turkey to accept the results, the European Union urged Ankara to allow elected officials to "exercise their mandate freely".

But Erdogan rejected the remarks and told the US and Europe to "know your place".

"America and Europe are... meddling in Turkey's internal affairs," Erdogan said in his first direct remarks to journalists since Monday.

"Turkey gave a democracy lesson to the whole world," he added.

US State Department spokesman Robert Palladino said "free and fair elections are essential for any democracy, and this means acceptance of legitimate election results are essential" during a briefing on Tuesday.

EU spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic on Monday said Brussels expected elected local representatives to be able "to exercise their mandate freely and in line with the principles of the Council of Europe (rights group) to which Turkey is of course party."

Andrew Dawson, head of a delegation from the Council of Europe in Turkey to observe the vote, said on Monday his team was "not fully convinced that Turkey currently has the free and fair electoral environment which is necessary for genuinely democratic elections in line with European values and principles."

- 'Over by weekend' -

The two rival Istanbul candidates both declared victory soon after the vote when initial results showed them in a dead heat. The AKP appealed after electoral authorities later said the opposition's Ekrem Imamoglu had taken a very slim lead.

The Turkish head of state hit out at American and European criticism over his party's push for appeals.

"In your own countries, you have launched appeals."

Erdogan fought hard before the vote, holding rallies across Turkey where he described the election of mayors and district councils as a battle for the nation's survival.

But voters, concerned with the rising cost of living, double-digit inflation and unemployment, opted for the opposition in the country's two biggest cities.

CHP opposition candidate Imamoglu told Fox Haber broadcaster earlier the difference between himself and the AKP's candidate, Binali Yildirim, was now 18,742 votes.

He said nearly 120,000 previously annulled votes had been recounted in 17 Istanbul districts, with 2,184 extra votes being allowed for Yildirim, and 785 for himself.

Imamoglu estimated the final difference could finish between 18,000 to 20,000 once counting ended, probably by Sunday. Nearly 200,000 more votes still need to be recounted, he said.

"It should be over by the end of the weekend," he told the station.

The AKP has said the recount will show its candidate won.

The Pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), meanwhile, said none of its appeals for recounts had been accepted by election boards, even when candidates had won by only a few votes.

The HDP supported the CHP -- to protest the government's "harsh policies" in Kurdish-majority cities -- by not fielding its own candidates and splitting the anti-Erdogan vote in western Turkey.

It said it had challenged the rulings and would "appeal to the Supreme Elections Board if provincial boards, too, reject our appeals".

- Ankara recount -

Election authorities are providing ongoing recount details to observers from both parties to ensure transparency. Political parties have until April 10 to challenge the results.

A defeat in Istanbul would be especially sensitive for Erdogan who made his political career as mayor of the city. The AKP or its predecessors had held both cities since 1994.

Opposition candidate Mansur Yavas of the CHP beat the AKP's Mehmet Ozhaseki in Ankara, according to preliminary results.

AKP officials have said they believe there was a huge discrepancy in both cities between ballots cast at polling stations and the actual data sent to election authorities.

Erdogan on Friday said his party won 24 out of 39 districts of Istanbul, but said: "The final decision will be taken by the Supreme Election Board."

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Erdogan accuses US, Europe of 'meddling' after Turkey vote

ISTANBUL Even before the important election of Istanbuls mayor has been settled, the opposition candidate, who claims to have won, is challenging President Recep Tayyip Erdogan by pressing ahead with his promise to have an independent audit of the citys books.

Mr. Erdogan and his party have been in control of the city since 2002, and analysts and opponents say they have warped the economy through kickbacks and crony schemes. There has not, however, been real proof of this.

Now, Mr. Erdogans party is demanding a recount of the vote. The opposition candidate, Ekrem Imamoglu, says this is a delaying tactic. And, at a news briefing on Wednesday, he said the party was trying to erase town hall records from computers before he takes over and brings in independent auditors to examine the citys books.

His promise of an audit dramatically raises the stakes for Mr. Erdogan, who was confronted with a stunning electoral defeat Sunday night, when his Justice and Development Party, or AKP, was shown to be losing the contests for mayor in both Ankara and Istanbul.

At the Wednesday news briefing, Mr. Imamoglu said he had evidence that the Istanbul municipality had applied to a technical company for help in deleting data from its computers. In comments on Tuesday he had appealed to city workers to do the correct thing and not destroy government property.

There are many issues, he said. When the day comes, once authorized, we will go there and we will start sharing them with the public.

Mr. Imamoglu said he wanted the audit to examine not only the municipalitys budget, but also private companies that serve as subsidiaries and partners to the municipality.

This is the soft belly of AKP, Bahadir Ozgur, a business columnist, wrote Tuesday in the online newspaper Gazete Duvar.

The AKP-style municipal work would end, he added, when independent auditors entered the town hall and name by name expose how much money was transferred to whom; whose relative, brother, uncle won which bid.

Mr. Erdogans party has yet to cede to the opposition, and the High Election Council has yet to certify the results of Sundays election. Opposition officials have said the legal process could take a week or more.

Mr. Imamoglu demanded a swift declaration of the results. We want justice, he said on Wednesday. "We want our election certificate.

He accused the AKP of playing for time and suggested the delaying tactics were partly to clean traces of their misdeeds. He promised new rules of transparency and international standards of accounting when he took over.

This process here absolutely requires transparency, he told a news briefing on Monday. If you are going to govern Istanbul, which is a city of 16 million, you have to develop an exemplary model, and this is what I am aiming for.

Mr. Imamoglus opponent, former Prime Minister Binali Yidlirim, accused him Wednesday evening of trying to gain support abroad by stirring controversy. You do not have the right to tamper with the nerves of the nation, he said.

Mr. Erdogan had surprised many with the ferocity of his campaign in the local elections in Istanbul and Ankara, and some analysts have pointed to the importance of the big cities as a source of wealth for his network of family and friends.

Huge billboards of Mr. Erdogan and his candidate for Istanbul mayor, Binali Yildirim, thanking the public for their votes, have gone up around the city since Sunday night, a sign the party had been confident that their candidate would win.

What makes the loss heavy is actually a secret known by everyone, Cigdem Toker, an investigative reporter with the fiercely opposition newspaper, Sozcu, wrote in a column on Wednesday.

She added that Istanbul and Ankara were important to Mr. Erdogans party because they are the centers of distributing financial resources.

We are talking about tens of thousands of bids, public resources that can be identified with hundreds of billions, and the authority to spend them, wrote Ms. Toker, who is facing several court cases brought by Mr. Erdogans government for her investigative reporting.

A new administration in Istanbul could end the flow of major city contracts for construction projects and city services that have been granted to favored businessmen.

A new administration could also end payments worth millions of dollars to endowments of charities and foundations run by the Erdogan family.

In January, Ms. Toker published details of payments made in 2018 by the Istanbul metropolitan municipality to foundations and charities run by Mr. Erdogans children and their spouses.

Ms. Toker wrote that TUGVA, the Turkish Youth Foundation, received 74 million lira, or approximately $13 million by current exchange rates, that year from the municipality. Bilal Erdogan, Mr. Erdogans younger son, sits on TUGVAs board.

The Archers Foundation, an archery sports club, received 16 million lira, or about $2 million, she reported. Bilal Erdogan sat on the board, she reported at the time. He has been widely known for his association with the foundation, although his name no longer appears on its website.

TURGEV, the Turkey Youth and Education Service Foundation, received 51 million lira, or about $9 million, she said. Esra Albayrak, Mr. Erdogans daughter, is on its board.

The Turkey Technology Team Foundation, known as T3, where Mr. Erdogans son-in-law Selcuk Bayraktar is head of the board, received 41 million lira or about $7 million, she also reported.

Her source for all of the payments was the 2018 Istanbul Municipality Report, which was not made public, underscoring Mr. Erdogans sensitivity to the wider disclosure of such documents by the opposition.

Mr. Erdogans signature success has been construction projects, from public residential building to infrastructure projects and expensive megaprojects like bridges and mosques. Opponents say that government contracts go to favored business partners, and that the AKP receives payments in a system of kickbacks from every deal.

Both the Ankara and Istanbul municipalities are heavily in debt, Mr. Ozgur warned in his column, and they may suffer if Mr. Erdogan, who controls the national budget, refuses them central government funds as punishment for the way they voted on Sunday.

Mr. Imamoglu, who announced his plans for Istanbul to international reporters Monday night, said he was prepared for that retribution and was confident Istanbul could generate enough of its own money to run itself.

He added that he had received indications of support from high within Turkeys state apparatus, if not in the lower ranks of the government, where support for Mr. Erdogan remains strong.

As president, Mr. Erdogan retains sweeping powers and could make life difficult for the incoming mayors, said Ozgur Unluhisarcikli, the Ankara director for the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

The AKP will control the municipal councils, and they have a say in particular in how the budget is allocated, he said. This control over the purse strings has long been a source of support for Mr. Erdogan and his party.

Ms. Toker reported Wednesday that there were signs already that the government was seeking ways to maintain control of resources. The Interior Ministry was taking steps to shift the approval of bids above a certain amount from municipal authorities to Mr. Erdogans personal control, she wrote.

In this way when it comes to investments in opposition controlled municipalities, the decision will be made in Bestepe, she wrote, a reference to the presidential palace.

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Erdogans Opponents Promise Scrutiny of Istanbuls Books ...