ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Opposition Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu said in an interview on Monday that local elections in March will deliver a message to President Tayyip Erdogan’s government about the Turkish people’s desire for “democracy, justice and the rule of law”.
Imamoglu, 52, acknowledged his re-election bid will be more difficult than his initial victory in 2019 because opposition parties are no longer in alliance against candidates from Erdogan’s ruling AK Party (AKP).
But Imamoglu – who governs Turkey’s biggest city and is the opposition’s highest-profile leader nationwide – told Reuters he is confident of defeating a newly-named AKP challenger.
“We want to see and experience a process where this city can send its messages to Turkey in terms of democracy, justice and rule of law,” said Imamoglu, of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).
“If this happens of course there will be several messages sent to the government. Let them worry about that,” he said.
Imamoglu’s election five years ago ended 25 years of rule in Istanbul by the AKP and its Islamist predecessors.
Last May, Erdogan won re-election as Turkey’s president while his AKP and its allies took a majority in parliamentary elections, illustrating the challenge faced by the opposition in the nationwide municipal elections on March 31.
As part of the fallout, the CHP and other opposition parties, including nationalists IYI and pro-Kurdish DEM, have not agreed to field shared candidates in big cities, many of which they won together in 2019.
“The fact is that it will be tougher than the last election,” Imamoglu said at his offices overlooking the Bosphorus Strait intersecting Istanbul. “Back then, the alliances were in a clearer position.”
(Reporting by Burcu Karakas, Ebru Tuncay and Birsen Altayli; Editing by Jonathan Spicer and Ros Russell)
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