Ekrem Imamoglu becomes the opposition's man in Turkey's next presidential election.
His party CHP's leader Özgür Özel says according to German DPA that around 95 percent of the party's approximately 1.7 million members voted for the imprisoned mayor in the party's election for its candidate in the next presidential election – and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's challenger.
CHP opened the doors so that all eligible voters in the country could cast their votes, regardless of whether they were party members or not. Over 13 million non-members – more than seven times the total number of party members – took the opportunity.
And according to Özgür Özel, almost all of the voters then chose to support Imamoglu.
"It's enough now"
The protests that have plagued Turkey since Imamoglu was arrested on Wednesday do not seem to have scared off voters.
We have come to support our mayor, says Kadriye Sevim in Istanbul to the news agency AFP.
Her neighbor, 29-year-old Ferhat, adds:
Every time a strong opponent (to Erdogan) emerges, they are always imprisoned. We live in a dictatorship right now, it's just called politics.
After the result was presented, Imamoglu's account on X hailed Erdogan: "It's enough now".
Extended opening hours
The 5,600 polling stations were supposed to close at 5 pm local time, but stayed open for another 3.5 hours to allow everyone who wanted to have their say. CHP can, according to DPA, distinguish between votes from members and non-members by letting them cast their ballots in different ballot boxes.
It was on Wednesday that popular Ekrem Imamoglu was arrested in a dawn raid. He is accused by the authorities of, among other things, supporting a terrorist organization and corruption, which he himself denies.
Despite President Erdogan issuing a ban on demonstrations, protests with hundreds of thousands of participants have shaken the country since Ekrem Imamoglu was arrested.
The Republic of Turkey was proclaimed in 1923 with national father Kemal Atatürk as president. It was supposed to be a modern nation-state with universal suffrage to a parliament, but until the 1950 election, only one party, the Republican People's Party (CHP), was allowed.
The military has intervened in politics several times, both deposing and appointing leaders. Throughout the 1990s, the country was ruled by short-lived coalition governments.
In 2001, the current president and former Istanbul mayor Recep Tayyip Erdogan founded the conservative Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP). It has ruled the country since 2002. Erdogan was prime minister between 2003 and 2014, when he took over the presidency from Abdullah Gül.
Democracy has gradually been dismantled as the president has taken control of, or shut down, regime-critical media. With a constitutional amendment in 2017 and further legislative changes and decrees after the 2018 election, Erdogan has reshaped the state apparatus in a way that essentially means that parliamentarism has been replaced by a presidential system. At the same time, Erdogan has given Islam an increasingly prominent place in politics.
Sources: UI and others
