The race is on for key cities as Turkey holds local elections

euronews (in English)

The vote is a barometer of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s popularity as he seeks to win back control of key urban areas he lost to the opposition five years ago

Transcript

00:00 Voters in Turkey are preparing to cast their ballots for new mayors and administrators

00:06 on Sunday.

00:07 The local elections are expected to gauge public sentiment around President Recep Tayyip

00:12 Erdogan's popularity as his ruling party tries to win back key cities lost five years ago.

00:19 Istanbul is the cherry because it hosts about one quarter of Turkish population. It's something

00:27 about 20 million people. We are talking unofficially. The number of refugees living in Istanbul

00:34 is greater than the refugees living in the Netherlands or any other country. It's huge.

00:39 Secondly, it has a huge budget. Because the metropolitan government has a budget, but

00:46 metropolitan government has some private, some institutions, some companies. They have

00:54 also budget. It means that we are estimating that they have, they can control about 10

00:59 to 15 billion dollars.

01:01 The opposition is tipped to retain its hold on the capital Ankara, with polls predicting

01:06 a tight race in Istanbul.

01:08 [SWOOSH]

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