World Bulletin / News Desk

The leader of Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), Kemal Kilicdaroglu, has brushed off claims that he is preparing to resign following disappointing results in the Turkish local elections on Sunday.

Speaking to Turkey's Hurriyet newspaper, Kilicdaroglu said claims that he was planning to step down were 'ridiculous', but admitted that his party was in the process of evaluating their campaign to spot any shortcomings.

Kilicdaroglu said that his party would be consulting sociologists and experts to understand why the public had not responded to their attempts to address and pursuade them.

However, in maintaining a positive outlook, Kilicdaroglu noted that his party had increased its support base in Istanbul and a number of major metropolitan cities.

He also blamed the ruling AK Party for not listening to the demands of the opposition and thus leading the country into a political crisis.

ISTANBUL CHP CANDIDATE CONCEDES DEFEAT

After conceding defeat to AK Party rival Kadir Topbas in the hotly contested mayoral race for Istanbul, CHP candidate Mustafa Sarigul chose to avoid the cameras, and instead submitted a written statement.

In a rather different tone of voice to that which he was using during his campaign, which was full of religious rhetoric in an attempt to reach out to the conservative society, Sarigul said that the election results revealed that there was an "arduous" road ahead of Turkey for the sake of rights, freedoms, democracy and secularism. "It is up to us to take this road so that our children can live in a modern Turkey," he said.

Sarigul also claimed that the elections could not be recorded as "clean" due to power cuts during the vote counting process.

"Due to my experience in politics, while working to enlighten these dark ages, I could see that the dark games that would be played during the election process," he said.

Refusing to look upon the results negatively, Sarigul added, "We will continue patiently on our way to show the truth to those whose eyes cannot see and whose ears cannot hear".

Sarigul's ex-wife Aylin Kotil, who was also a candidate for CHP in the race for Istanbul's Beyoglu district, also conceded defeat to AK Party candidate Ahmet Misbah Demircan.