Erdogan support tested in Turkish local elections; 2 killed

Millions of Turks voted in municipal elections Sunday that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan depicted as a fight for Turkey's survival, and which are a crucial test of the strongman's own support amid a sharp economic downturn.

The voting, which ended in the evening, was marred by scattered election violence that killed at least two people and injured dozens of others across Turkey. Results were expected late Sunday.

Economic prosperity provided Erdogan and his party with previous election victories.

But the party could lose key posts in the mayoral elections taking place in 30 large cities, 51 provincial capitals and hundreds of districts as Turkey copes with a weakened currency, a double-digit inflation rate and soaring food prices.

The high stakes of the local contests were brought into stark display with the deaths of two members of the Islamic-oriented Felicity Party, a small rival of the president's Justice and Development Party.

Felicity's leader, Temel Karamollaoglu, alleged a polling station volunteer and a party observer were shot by a relative of a ruling party candidate.

The killings weren't caused by "simple animosity," but happened when the volunteers tried to enforce the law requiring ballots to be marked in private voting booths instead of out in the open, Karamollaoglu tweeted.

Speaking to reporters after he voted, Erdogan said he was sad about the deaths and didn't want them to become a cause for "a questioning or a judgment between political parties."
Erdogan began his rise to power as its mayor in 1994 and said at campaign rallies that "whoever wins Istanbul, wins Turkey."
Before the elections, Erdogan campaigned tirelessly for AKP's candidates, framing the municipal elections taking place across Turkey as matters of "national survival."
"God willing, this crisis and chaos will be fixed and we'll see healthier, happier days."