(20 Jun 2019) Binali Yildirim, the former prime minister and close associate of Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who lost to Republican People's Party (CHP)'s Ekrem Imamoglu in the initial March 31 vote, has had the unusual burden of explaining to voters why the election is being repeated as well as why they should vote for him.
The 63-year-old politician running as the joint candidate of Erdogan's conservative and religious Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and Turkey's main nationalist MHP party, is the last person to hold the post of prime minister after a 2017 referendum expanding the powers of the president abolished the premier's office.
Yildirim served as parliament speaker for less than a year before standing for the post of mayor.
He has projected the image of a reluctant candidate thrust to the candidacy by Erdogan and appears unable to convey a strong message.
His main task has been to try and convince traditional AK Party voters, who stayed away from the polls on March 31 to apparently punish the ruling party over an economic slump, rising food prices and other grievances, to cast their votes this time around.
As a former transport minister, Yildirim has pointed at his record of improved Istanbul infrastructure and services and has pledged uninterrupted service to Istanbul residents.
In a bid to regain Kurdish votes in the city, Yildirim visited Turkey's mainly Kurdish-inhabited city of Diyarbakir, insisting Kurds had enjoyed unprecedented freedoms and democracy under the AK Party's 17-year rule.
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