According to opinion polls, the mayor of Istanbul could have defeated Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the June elections. The opposition considers the verdict political.
18:21•Updated 18:34
Mayor of Istanbul Ekrem İmamoğlu was sentenced today, Thursday, to two years and seven months in prison. The verdict was for defamation of the chairman of the Central Election Commission and other employees.
The mayor belongs to the opposition centre-left Republican People’s Party. The sentence also includes a ban on participating in politics. Formally, it was defamation, but the opposition thinks the legal process is political.
According to critics, the goal has been to get rid of a popular politician who could have become the opposition’s joint candidate in next year’s presidential election.
İmamoğlu invited his supporters to the city hall and several other opposition politicians have also called on people to express their support for the Istanbul mayor. In the afternoon, it was in front of the town hall a large crowd gathered (you move to another service). Hundreds of riot police were also present, according to Turkish media.
The opposition has not yet agreed on a common candidate, and the 52-year-old İmamoğlu did not even have time to announce his interest in the presidential candidacy.
This has not stopped the pollsters. The mayor of Istanbul could have defeated the president of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Double winner of the mayoral elections in Istanbul
In 2019, Ekrem İmamoğlu won the Istanbul mayoral election no less than twice.
First at the end of March, when the opposition did well in local elections and captured both Istanbul and Ankara from President Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party.
In the spring of 2019, the Justice and Development Party was so sure of its victory in Istanbul that posters thanking the party’s candidate Binali Yıldırım appeared on the street before the result was known. İmamoğlu won, but after that came the controversial decision of the election authority to renew the elections in Istanbul.
İmamoğlu increased his vote share and also won the re-election with a difference of more than 800,000 votes.
In the background is a dispute about election fraud
The sentence handed down now is also related to the elections.
Imamoğlu accused President Erdoğan’s administration of trying to win Istanbul’s mayoral election by exploiting election officials. After that, the mayor got into a verbal altercation with the interior minister representing Erdoğan’s party.
The charges were based on this dispute, but the interpretation is that Imamoğlu insulted the honor of the employees of the Central Election Commission in his argument with the minister.
President Erdoğan is known to have tangled with the judiciary in the past. Imamoğlu had hoped in advance that he could trust the judiciary no matter what.
Istanbul an important place for the president
Istanbul has a very special meaning for President Erdoğan. He led the city in the 1990s before moving into national politics.
The city of around 16 million inhabitants is indeed a significant springboard in politics.
Imamoğlu plans to appeal today’s sentence. He can continue as mayor of Istanbul until the appeal is processed in the higher courts. However, it seems clear that Imamoğlu has at least been played out of the presidential election.
So far, only one serious candidate has registered for next year’s presidential race, President Erdoğan.
Sources: AFP, Reuters