The Istanbul mayoral candidate for the ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party Binali Yıldırım on Sunday congratulated his rival Ekrem İmamoğlu for his lead in the election as results started trickling in.
According to the unofficial results Republican People's Party candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu leads the election race with 53.72 percent against Yıldırım's 45.37 percent with 95 percent of the ballot boxes opened.
Over 10.5 million people were eligible to cast their ballots.
Voting started at 8.00 a.m local time (0500GMT) in 31,342 ballot boxes across 39 districts of Istanbul.
Binali Yıldırım, candidate of the ruling Justice and Development (AK), and Ekrem İmamoğlu of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), will vie to run the metropolitan municipality of Turkey's most populous city after a previous vote on March 31 was annulled by the country's top election council last month.
Millions of Turkish voters cast their votes nationwide on March 31 in local elections to choose mayors, city council members, mukhtars (neighborhood officials), and members of elder councils for the next five years.
On March 31, the turnout was 83.88%, six percentage points lower than the previous local elections of March 30, 2014.
