Turkey polls: Opposition party contests results in Usak

By Soner Kilinc

USAK, Turkey (AA) - Turkey's opposition IYI Party has asked a local election authority to resolve a dispute over as many as 3,800 ballots cast in Sunday's local polls which it said was enough could change the outcome of the voting in the western Usak province.

"We detected 3,800 invalid votes. The distribution of invalid votes here is very important. So, we contested the poll results," Ismail Koncuk told reporters.

"We think there are too many invalid votes to change the result," he said.

According to the unofficial results, the Justice and Development (AK) Party candidate Mehmet Cakin was elected mayor of Usak, bagging 50,934 votes, while the Iyi Party candidate Muhammet Gur got 49,172 votes.

Millions of Turkish voters cast their votes nationwide Sunday in elections to choose Turkey’s mayors, city council members, mukhtars (neighborhood officials) and members of elder councils for the next five years.

AK Party led the polls, claiming 15 metropolitan municipalities (larger cities), and 24 cities, according to unofficial results.

*Writing by Faruk Zorlu