Opposition Candidate Says he Won Istanbul

The opposition's mayoral candidate says he has won the race in Istanbul by more than 29,000 votes.

Ekrem Imamoglu spoke early Monday, hours after the candidate for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party declared victory in the city even though the race is too close to call.

The official Anadolu Agency says the ruling party's candidate won 48.70 percent of the votes in Istanbul and that Imamoglu's has 48.65 percent, with 98 percent of the ballot boxes counted.

Imamoglu told reporters however, that results obtained by his party shows that the opposition has won Istanbul and that the ruling party "has no chance of closing the gap."

He criticized Anadolu Agency which has not updated the results for Istanbul for some three hours and called on the media organization to "fulfill its democratic duty."