Turkey’s main opposition party late on March 31 declared victory in the Istanbul and Ankara local election contests, while in the nationwide municipal elections overall it also appeared to be closing in on victories in many of Turkey’s other big cities, including Izmir, Bursa and Antalya. Ekrem Imamoglu, the Republican People’s Party (CHP) candidate set for re-election as mayor of Istanbul, has now defeated candidates backed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan three times—in the 2019 Istanbul vote, the 2019 “revote” and in this latest poll. Seen by supporters as a politician who could go on to d…