A journalist critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government and its nationalist allies has been hospitalized after being attacked outside his home.

The Yenicag newspaper says Saturday that columnist Yavuz Selim Demirag was beaten up by about five or six people with baseball bats after appearing on a TV show Friday.

The reason for the attack was not known but it comes amid tensions over the top electoral authority's decision to cancel the results of the March 31 mayoral race for Istanbul, which was won by the opposition, and order a revote to take place June 23.

Erdogan's party says the Istanbul vote was marred by fraud but the opposition says the electoral board was pressured by the government, which desperately wants to hold on to power in Turkey's largest city.