'Turkey's people want president to be impartial'

By Muhammet Emin Avundukluoglu

ANKARA (AA) - One message of the Istanbul mayoral elections is that the Turkish people want the president to be impartial, said Turkey's main opposition leader on Tuesday.

Speaking to his Republican People's Party's (CHP) parliamentary group, Kemal Kilicdaroglu said that there were two main results of last Sunday's re-run election in Istanbul, a megalopolis of 16 million people.

People “want the president to be impartial," said Kilicdaroglu.

They also want the judiciary to be free of political pressure, he added.

He said the president "should embrace all 82 million of Turkey’s people".

The world is closely following Turkey's determination for democracy, he said.

"The winner is not only Ekrem Imamoglu, or democracy, but also Turkey," said Kilicdaroglu.

Ekrem Imamoglu, the CHP candidate, won the re-run election with 54.21% of the votes, according to unofficial results.

The election was a do-over from the March 31 local elections, ordered after election authorities said the polls suffered from irregularities and illegalities.