Turkey's opposition stuns in sweeping local elections victory over Erdogan's party

• Turkey's opposition won a stunning victory across several major cities in the country's local elections Sunday, dealing a severe blow to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party.
• The center-left Republican People's Party won Istanbul by more than one million votes, and chalked wins in several other major Turkish cities, including Izmir and the capital Ankara.
• "We will correct our mistakes and redress our shortcomings," Erdogan said in a speech Sunday night.

Turkey's opposition won a stunning victory across several major cities in the country's local elections Sunday, dealing a severe blow to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party and handing it its largest defeat in more than two decades.

"Those who do not understand the nation's message will eventually lose," Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu told thousands of supporters after vote counts revealed that his center-left Republican People's Party (CHP) had won the megacity of Istanbul by more than 1 million votes, Reuters reported.

"Tonight, 16 million Istanbul citizens sent a message to both our rivals and the president," he said.

Erdogan's conservative Justice and Development Party, abbreviated locally as AKP, dominates the country at the national level.

In a speech Sunday night, Erdogan admitted his party had "lost altitude" and would work to rectify its errors.

"We will correct our mistakes and redress our shortcomings," he said from the balcony of the presidential palace. Erdogan, 70, has governed Turkey since 2003.

The sweeping opposition win municipal elections across major Turkish cities like Istanbul, Izmir, and the capital Ankara could set the country in a new direction. Erdogan himself rose to prominence as Istanbul mayor in the 1990s before later going