March 2019 Istanbul mayoral election in the context of "2019 Turkish local elections"

Ali Yerlikaya (born 11 October 1968) is a Turkish bureaucrat serving as the minister of the interior since 4 June 2023. He previously served as the governor of Istanbul from 2018 to 2023. Following the annulment of the March 2019 Istanbul mayoral election, Yerlikaya was briefly the acting Mayor of Istanbul until a new successor was elected in a re-run in June 2019.

Prior to becoming Governor of Istanbul, Yerlikaya served as the governor of Şırnak from 2007 to 2010, as the governor of Ağrı from 2010 to 2012, as the governor of Tekirdağ from 2012 to 2015, and as the governor of Gaziantep from 2015 to 2018.

The June 2019 Istanbul mayoral election was held on 23 June 2019. It was a repeat of the March 2019 mayoral election, which was annulled by the Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) on 6 May 2019. The original election had resulted in a narrow 0.2% margin of victory for opposition candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu, causing the governing Justice and Development Party (AK Party) to successfully petition for a by-election.

The Nation Alliance (formed of the Republican People's Party (CHP) and the Good Party) fielded their initial candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu, who ran a positive campaign under the slogan Her Şey Çok Güzel Olacak (Everything will be fine). The governing People's Alliance (formed by the AK Party and the Nationalist Movement Party) reselected their initially unsuccessful candidate Binali Yıldırım. The non-aligned Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) did not stand their own candidate and announced their support for İmamoğlu. The election featured a televised debate between the two main candidates, for the first time in Turkey since 2002. Campaigning focused highly on rival accusations of misconduct during and after the initial March 2019 election, during which both sides alleged that they had been a victim of the other's antics.