PHOTO: CNN. Ekrem Imamoglu, Istanbul’s new CHP mayor, took office in April.
Turkey’s Supreme Election Council (YSK) announced its 7-4 decision on Monday in favor of a revote for Istanbul’s next Mayor, weeks after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) lost that race by a razor thin margin.
The opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) won control of both Istanbul and capital city Ankara in the March 31 local elections. In Istanbul, the victory was extremely narrow, with CHP at 48.79% of the vote, just ahead of AKP’s 48.51%.
According to state-run Anadolu news agency, the re-run will take place on June 23 and Ekrem Imamoglu, Istanbul’s new CHP mayor, had his mayoral certificate canceled by YSK on Monday.
Ekrem Imamoglu and CHP denounced the decision as “plain dictatorship”, and that the decision showed that “it is illegal to win against the [AKP] Party”. “This system that overrules the will of the people and disregards the law is neither democratic, nor legitimate. This is plain dictatorship,” said CHP’s Deputy Chair Onursal Adiguzel on Twitter.
The ruling AKP had appealed to the board with potential voter fraud, claiming organized irregularities in initial results for all 39 districts of the city of 15 million people, leading to partial or full recounts in April. The initial lead held by Ekrem Imamoglu has narrowed from 25,000 immediately after the vote to a little over 16,000 after 70% of the recounts were completed.
PHOTO: Atta Kenare/AFP. Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani (file photo).
Iran will continue with low-level uranium enrichment in line with its nuclear deal with world powers, Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani was quoted as saying on May 4, despite a U.S. move to stop it.
Washington acted on May 3 to force Iran to stop producing low-enriched uranium and expanding its only nuclear power plant, intensifying a campaign aimed at halting Tehran’s ballistic missile program and curbing its regional power.
“Under the (nuclear accord) Iran can produce heavy water, and this is not in violation of the agreement. Therefore we will carry on with enrichment activity,” the semi-official news agency ISNA quoted Larijani as saying. Heavy water can be employed in reactors to produce plutonium, a fuel used in nuclear warheads.
The United States also scrapped its sanctions waiver that had allowed Iran to evade a 300-kg limit on the amount of low-enriched uranium it can store under the nuclear deal at its main nuclear facility of Natanz. Washington said the move was aimed at forcing Tehran to end its production of low-enriched uranium, a demand Iran has repeatedly rejected as it says it uses the uranium to help produce electricity. Until now, Iran was allowed to ship low-enriched uranium produced at Natanz to Russia before it hit the 300-kg limit.
The United States also said it would no longer waive sanctions that allowed Iran to ship to Oman for storage heavy water produced at its Arak facility beyond a 300-tonne limit set in the 2015 nuclear deal.
“With new sanctions, America wants to slow Iran’s nuclear industry, so new talks should be held with nuclear deal members and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to approve that Iran can enrich fuel to 20 percent and higher,” Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, head of parliament’s national security committee, was quoted as saying by ISNA.
PHOTO: Speaker of Parliament of Albania Gramoz Ruci with his Austrian counterpart Wolfgang Sobotka. Speaker Ruci is on an official visit to Austria from May 6.
Speaker of Parliament of Albania Gramoz Ruci is continuing to lobby with the EU Parliaments regarding Albania’s opening of accession talks.
Albanian Speaker Ruci was invited by his Austrian counterpart Wolfgang Sobotka to pay an official visit to Vienna. He was accompanied by the head of the SP Parliamentary Group, Taulant Balla, MP Fate Velj and Albania’s Ambassador to Austria, Roland Bimo.
The first meeting was held with an extended group of MPs, members of the Foreign Policy Committee, the EU Subcommittee and the Austrian Friendship Group of the Parliament, chaired by Reinhold Lopatka, Chairman of the EU Subcommittee on Austrian Parliament.
Speaker Ruci thanked the MPs for their attention to Albania and its European path, as well as the fact that they have been promoters of supporting the opening of negotiations with Albania. “Albania has 100% compliance with its foreign policy, with the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy. It has a proactive role for regional cooperation and good neighborly relations. The EU’s expansion to the Western Balkans would further promote our commitment to reforms and help to increase Albania’s constructive role as a leader in guaranteeing peace and stability in the region…We have done all the homework on the five key priorities that the European Council recommended, and we are here to ask Austria’s attorney for opening accession talks in June,” said Speaker Ruci.
Speaker Ruci and Austrian Senate President Ingo Appe also talked about aspects of economic cooperation between the two countries and the promotion of Austrian investments in Albania.
BY MSEAP Cyber Secretariat (mseap@assembly.go.kr) |
