Finishing just one percentage point behind his rival Melih Gökçek and with evidence of ballot box miscalculations, Yavaş has since taken numerous allegations of misconduct to the European Court of Human Rights.

First elected in 1994, Melih Gökçek was seeking his fourth term as Mayor of Ankara, while Yavaş was also expected to win strong support from the MHP .

[3][4][5] The counting process, which took significantly longer than usual, ended with Gökçek apparently claiming a narrow lead of 31,732 votes (1%) over Yavaş, a result that was rejected by the CHP.

[6] The CHP began a large-scale ballot-checking operation, fielding requests for recounts to the Supreme Electoral Council of Turkey (YSK) while hundreds of volunteers analysed ballot box data to uncover any irregularities in recording the numbers of votes won by each candidate.

It was later announced that the CHP had uncovered enough irregularities in the ballot box records to alter the final result and give Yavaş a victory in the election.