The Turkish capital Ankara saw the Republican People’s Party (CHP) candidate and incumbent Mayor Mansur Yavaş claim victory in Sunday's local elections.

After 77.98% of the ballot boxes opened and counted, Yavaş took a significant lead with 58.91% of the votes, according to unofficial results.

He was followed by Justice and Development Party (AK Party) candidate Turgut Altınok at 32.72%.

"The elections are over we will continue to serve Ankara," said Yavaş in his initial reaction.

The capital, which has a population of over 5.6 million, has some 4,304,874 voters and boasted a participation rate of over 76.61% in Sunday's election.

Yavaş, a conservative nationalist, was first elected in the 2019 local elections when he became the first CHP candidate in 25 years to win in the capital.

He had entered the election as the joint candidate of the Nation Alliance formed between the center-left secularist CHP and the right-wing Good Party (IP).

Yavaş followed a ritualistic conservative-nationalist pattern at the beginning of his last tenure, starting the first day in office with morning prayer at the historic Hacı Bayram Veli Mosque and a visit to the tomb of the famous Turkish Sufi before heading off to Anıtkabir, the mausoleum of the republic's founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

His political career, however, started with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), and he was elected mayor of Ankara's Beypazarı district in 1999.

After serving for a decade till 2009, the MHP nominated Yavaş as a candidate for Ankara Metropolitan Municipality and gained unexpected success, earning 27% of the votes, but stayed behind the AK Party and CHP candidates.

In the 2014 local elections, Yavaş left the MHP for the CHP and was pitted against the AK Party's Melih Gökçek. However, the veteran mayor left Yavaş behind in fierce competition by garnering 44.8% of votes, while Yavaş got 43.8%.