Police clash with protesters in Turkey amid election unrest

STORY: Protesters in Van clashed with police on Wednesday (April 3), which used water canons and tear gas to disperse the crowds.

Abdullah Zeydan, from the DEM Party, was elected on Sunday's (March 31) local elections as the mayor of Van but Turkish authorities prevented him from taking up his post.

Zeydan had received some 55.5% of the vote, while the candidate from President Tayyip Erdogan’s party AK Party got 27.2%.

However, DEM said the justice ministry had sent a letter five minutes before offices closed on Friday last week, two days before the vote, objecting to Zeydan's candidacy, and a court had then ruled that he did not have the right to stand.

The challenges by DEM - parliament's third largest party, which performed well in the mainly Kurdish southeast - mark the biggest dispute over the results of Sunday's nationwide local vote in which Erdogan's AKP was trounced.

Zeydan and DEM Party lawyer appealed the decision to bar him from taking office, a party spokesperson said on Wednesday (April 3).