the declared victory of the 'Yes' vote in the 2017 constitutional referendum despite electoral irregularities, Yıldırım resigned as AKP Leader in place of Erdoğan, who was elected as his successor during the 3rd AKP extraordinary Congress on 21 May 2017. Yıldırım was subsequently elected as the AKP's parliamentary leader by 300 votes on 24 May. The office of Prime Minister of Turkey was abolished as a result of the 2017 constitutional referendum. In 2013, Yıldırım was implicated in a government corruption scandal, with the financial and social activities of his family members also coming under scrutiny. He has caused controversy over his defence of greater government surveillance and comments favouring sex segregation. He was the AKP nominee for Mayor of Istanbul in both the March 2019 and June 2019 Istanbul mayoral elections (the latter of which occurred after the Supreme Election Council annulled the March election), losing both to CHP nominee Ekrem İmamoğlu, to whom he conceded defeat and congratulated following the June 2019 election. Early life and career Binali Yıldırım was born in Refahiye, Erzincan Province, on 20 December 1955. His name, Binali, means son of Ali in Arabic (بن علي). An Alevi neighbour of his family gave him the name. His surname, Yıldırım, means "lightning bolt" and has often been attributed by the pro-government press to embody the rapid growth of transport infrastructure during his tenure as Minister of Transport. Binali Yıldırım's origins have been frequently questioned due to contradictory claims by himself, his family, and other people. At a political rally in Hakkari and Van, while asking Kurds to vote for his party, he mentioned that his origins are Kurdish; however, his cousin stated that their family is not Kurdish. Many see Binali Yıldırım's mention of his supposed Kurdish origins as an attempt to appear cute for the voters of pro-Kurdish parties. Yıldırım also claimed that he is from Şanlıurfa while addressing citizens from Şanlıurfa, although it is known that he is from Erzincan. As a result, many authors started theorizing about his origins. Macit Gürbüz, a Turkish author, claims that his family migrated to Urfa from Raqqa and then to Ağrı. Afterwards, the family ended up in a village in Gümüşhane and lastly in Erzincan. Likewise, some people from Ağrı assume Binali Yıldırım as a fellow Kurd from Ağrı, while people from Erzincan claim him to be a Turk. Education Yıldırım was educated at the Istanbul