Istanbul mayoral candidates to hold live TV debate

 The two mayoral candidates for Turkey's largest city Istanbul on Monday agreed to hold a televised debate ahead of a fresh election, slated for June 23.

Addressing a joint press conference in Istanbul, Deputy Chairman of the ruling Justice and Development (AKP) Mahir Unal and Deputy Chairman of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) Engin Altay announced that their candidates would participate in a live TV debate on June 16.

The debate, the first of its kind in Turkey in more than a decade, pits CHP's Ekrem Imamoglu against AKP's Binali Yildirim, a former Prime Minister, Xinhua news agency reported.

Imamoglu won the previous election, held on March 31 by a narrow margin, but the result was annulled and a re-run of the election was called by the Supreme Election Board over AKP's allegations of irregularities in the voting. IANS