baking bread on d w. this is d w news live from berlin turkey's president suffers a blow in local elections the opposition is celebrating as it gains control of the capital ankara the commercial capital istanbul looks set to fall what does this all mean for president carter wanted and for the future of the country look at the latest also coming up. it's no laughing matter comedian volodymyr is a lens he wins the first round of voting in ukraine's presidential elections he's come in well ahead of incumbent president petro poroshenko.

i'm brian thomas thanks so much for joining us it is being called a severe setback for turkey's president rich of tire paired one is a key party has lost control of the capital ankara in local elections and is also facing defeat in istanbul these elections are seen as a referendum on his leadership and many voters say they are completely unhappy with the way he's handling the country's economic downturn. it's an unfamiliar position for red chip tayyip erdogan in local elections seen as a test if you support voters delivered the turkish president his worst night ever at the ballot box during his ruling laid across the country over a role in economic downturn and high inflation and unemployment left vulnerable but

said sim cards it there is. i believe the only reason we couldn't get the results we wanted in some cities. is that we couldn't express ourselves enough to our nation. and we failed to win their hearts you know everything all moments all that are. k.p. is sit to lose the capital ankara to the main opposition c.h.p. and possibly even east done bull too with the result to close to coal both groups have claimed victory in turkey's largest city. according to the results we won the elections in istanbul. i say it loud and clear i know we want all of it done. after voting in dozens of men is municipal councils and other local officials turks of different

political leanings are processing the election results. we're happy at last let's put it this way we haven't been happy for so long that. this is a victory for people who have been aggrieved this is a victory for kurds and democracy for us people across the world and in turkey have won. almost every chunk of it i'm obviously sad about ankara it was a surprise i was in ankara last week for a meeting but i think the people of ankara will understand their mistake and come back to the a k p. for her to one in the losing control of bank around after twenty five years is a significant setback during this election is over the race for istanbul isn't with no side ready to admit defeat they're winning is down bullies likely to become a major battleground over the next days or even weeks ahead.

ok let's go straight to istanbul now did have years you'll yahaan covering the elections for us good morning yulia the opposition candidate where you are in istanbul appears to be ahead there now this is a city that in the past has strongly backed area won what's the latest. well just a little earlier the chief of turkey's high electoral commission announced a victory for the main opposition candidate here in istanbul his name as a mom and that's as official as it gets for now according to this announcement he is sixty thousand votes ahead of the candidates so present ad ones candidates of course so we would have to wait for an over all official results here for turkey but taking everything together the other preliminary results that we got so far

this really looks like a serious setback for president add on and his ruling a.k.p. according to the figures we have they lost the capital ankara and apparently also lost istanbul the city of fifteen million people an important economic half of the city where president add one started his personal career as mayor of istanbul in the one nine hundred ninety so for him this city is immensely important and the analysts we talked to before the elections actually told us if the opposition manages to win and istanbul this would be a political earthquake for and a clear sign that he and his party the a.k.p. after such a long time in power more than sixteen years seventeen years now are no longer invincible ok they're no longer invincible and they're looking at. potential political.

you know president adlon has been campaigning in the past weeks and months as if this election really was about himself and not about mayors and other local representatives he has been you know really giving several speeches i'd say and considering that a media coverage here in turkey is overwhelmingly pro government this really looks like a defeat for him we're here in the conservative pro a.k.p. district off otty this is where the a.k.p. have cortez a base for example we've been trying to talk to some of the traditional a.k.p. supporters and learn what they think now about this apparent result people were kind of reluctant to talk to us this morning some others said well these local elections don't matter that much because their beloved president will still run the country but we also spoke to one lady for example who said now this is president

adlon basically getting the bill for his economic policies in the past you know turkey is now in the midst of a recession inflation and joblessness are double digits really many voters are feeling the economic downturn in their daily lives and that's what many say now it really has been the economy at deciding this vote would have been some of the. voters talking to a what else have you been hearing in terms of how people are responding to these results. well you know it has been really a sleepless night for many people here in istanbul just because this race was so tight here in istanbul we have both candidates the a.k.p. candidate and the c.h.p. the opposition candidate at about forty eight percent of the vote so a razor sharp difference here and some of the opposition voters early in the

morning told me you know if they don't manipulate the result then the opposition clearly won and that's the feeling some people had here because the state run an adulterer agency that the main source for the election results basically that we had last night at some point stopped updating the results when it looked like such a tight race so many voters now believe that there was something going on and that's the argument of the main opposition candidate here he said let's protect our data let's make sure this is a fair election and let's make sure there is no many palatial that is what he was fighting for and apparently now the high electoral commission confirm what he was saying all along that the opposition won and he stumbled. thanks very much reaffirming there that electoral commission saying the overall official result indicates the opposition has want to thank you very much jojo. let's check in now some of the other stories making the news this hour british lawmakers are set to meet again today to seek

a way forward on the country's brecht's that process they rejected prime minister teresa mayes proposed deal for the third time on friday she's facing major pressure from rival factions to leave without a deal call the election or accept a much softer exit divorce. a malaysian judge has sentenced the vietnamese woman to three years and four months in prison over the killing of the north korean leader's half brother kim jong nam died in two thousand and seventeen after being smeared with a nerve agent at kuala lumpur airport don't want a long pleaded guilty to one charge of causing harm an indonesian codefendant was acquitted last month. one of russia's richest women natalya leyva has been killed along with two others when their small plane crashed near the germ city of frankfurt she was towing or of the private russian airline s. seven it's not yet known what cause of crime. is

to ukraine's presidential elections now where a t.v. comedy star has opened a commanding lead in the first round with over half of all ballots counted a lot amir's a lengthy leads with at least thirty percent of the vote a forty one year old is the star of a popular comedy show and topped opinion polls prior to the voting he's never held political office the incumbent president petro poroshenko is currently in second place with about sixteen percent of former prime minister yulia timoshenko is said to be knocked out of the running in third place. let's find out more now with a yeven live of it's keys ukrainian political scientist member of the nestore group which is an alliance of intellectual civil society groups aiming to develop a long term strategic vision for the country welcomes the show thanks for being with us can you tell us more about the rushing russian speaking selenski and the oligarchs as we saw in that report who's backing you got all my. the oligarch one of the ukrainian oligarchs was the one who sided with the ukrainian government when

the russian backed separatist started the advance in two thousand and fourteen then he fell victim of the reforms and the corruption reforms that. made it almost impossible or difficult for the oligarchs to extort public funds and at that point it went to anti government and limit as lenski the current frontrunner was the stand up comedian who was actively promoted by television station for many years so they are linked and as far as reports go they are linked not only professionally but they all are also in good terms ok does that link being that he would be the kind of candidate who is president would take the country more on a closer tact to ours moscow towards russia or would he would he be one who would be open to the some of the comments to the lenski made. in the meetings with the businessmen or meetings with the with the experts were surprisingly close to what

for instance volume of putin the president of russia saying but many people think that it's not about his it's not about his stand but it's about his poor judgment judgment an inexperienced the fact that he's an experienced. zelinsky is basically a screen unto which many craniums project their expectations he didn't make strong policy stance at that point so it's very difficult to say who actually selenski will be should he be elected ok so we screen for the voters who would be leaning towards the european union for example any voters ok petro poroshenko is very clear he is very pro european what does this electoral setback seventeen percent mean for him. it's not a hit. against the european values or against the emotion of ukraine towards europe it's probably a. personal. a result of personal dissatisfaction with bush on call that many

ukrainians have still i think has very good chances in second round i would say it's fifty fifty fifty fifty ok now one of one of the issues that that's fascinating about this election is the war in the east has been going on claiming lives during the campaigning during the election how did that figure into the vote the fighting in eastern ukraine well basically it's a big complaint issue in ukraine right now one of the things that the bush on call the incumbent is stressing is that we need to have strong security policy and that we need to be focused and be alert all the time and many of the selenski. supporters are people who are either fatigued with the war or are actually sending the signal that they don't want to recognize the war as the factor in their lives so ukraine has a difficult point of this at this time when the war that's claiming life lives doesn't look like it's going to end soon and there is. a more vivid understanding

that there is no way how you can appease russia affectively or how you can stop the war basically it's either ukraine survives or russia as employer states it's one of the other or you can't have both those are two stark choices that's what it's looking like ok you haven't thanks so much for being with us today thank you. let's get your modern now of our top stories at this hour turkey's president much a tired everyone has suffered a blow in local elections after the main opposition party won the capital ankara and looks set to take his phone calls while voters are reported to be very concerned over the state of the economy. and in ukraine comedian a lot of mayors a lansky has taken a strong lead after the first round of presidential elections with half of all ballots now counted so once he's ahead with of least thirty percent of the vote the forty one year old has never held political office incumbent president

a proportion ago is currently second place is between sixteen seventeen. this deed of interviews live from berlin i'm brian thomas for the entire team thanks for joining us our documentary film is up next the song north korea. school in the jungle. the first clinging lesson. doors grandma has arrives. jointly ranting on her journey back to freedom. in our interactive documentary. an orang utan returns home on t w don't come in tanks.