Turkish voters yesterday voted in municipal elections, with all eyes on Istanbul, the national “jewel” that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hopes to pry away from the opposition.
Erdogan’s road to power in Turkey began in Istanbul when he was elected mayor of the city straddling Europe and Asia in 1994. His allies held the city until Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu of the secular Republican People’s Party (CHP) wrested control five years ago.
As soon as Erdogan clinched re-election as president in May last year — he has been head of state since 2014 — he launched the campaign to reclaim the city of 16 million people.
Photo: AP
“Istanbul is the jewel, the treasure and the apple of our country’s eye,” the 70-year-old leader said at a rally in the city recently.
“Whoever wins Istanbul, wins Turkey,” Erman Bakirci, a pollster from Konda Research and Consultancy, recalled Erdogan once saying.
The Turkish president has named former Turkish minister of environment and urbanization Murat Kurum as his candidate.
The latest polls show that Imamoglu — who edged out an Erdogan ally in the 2019 election that gained international headlines — has a slight lead.
However, analysts caution that opinion polls in Turkey have been wrong before and that the outcome is far from certain.
The 2019 vote was controversially annulled, but Imamoglu won the rerun vote by an even greater margin, which turned him into an instant hero for Turkey’s notoriously fractured opposition and a formidable foe for Erdogan.
Observers say that if Imamoglu managed to retain the Istanbul mayor’s seat, he would be the main challenger to the ruling party in the next presidential elections, set for 2028.
Erdogan has thrown all his energy into campaigning for his candidate. The city has been plastered with posters showing Erdogan and Kurum together.
On Saturday, Erdogan appeared at three campaign rallies in the city, pressing his message that Imamoglu, whose name he never mentions, is a “part-time mayor” consumed by his presidential ambitions.
“Istanbul has been left to its own devices these past five years. We hope to save it from disaster,” he said before heading to prayer at the famed Hagia Sophia mosque.
Imamoglu has focused his campaign on local issues and defended his achievements in office.
“Every vote you give to the CHP will mean more metros, creches, green spaces, social benefits and investment,” he has said.
About 61 million voters were to choose mayors across Turkey’s 81 provinces, as well as provincial council members and other local officials.
The opposition has been fractured ahead of the polls, in contrast with the local polls five years ago.
For example, the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party, the third largest in the 600-seat parliament, is fielding two candidates for Istanbul mayor, whereas in the 2019 race it agreed to stay out of the vote to implicitly support the opposition.
Istanbul’s ballot paper listed 49 candidates and was 97cm long.
Observers say that wins for his candidates in the main cities would embolden Erdogan.
“If he manages to regain Istanbul and Ankara, Erdogan will see it as encouragement to modify the constitution to stand in 2028,” said Bayram Balci, a researcher at the Centre for International Study and Research at Sciences Po university in Paris.
Polls opened at 7am in the east of the country and were due to close at 5pm in the west, including Istanbul.
The first estimates were expected to be released late yesterday.
Seven people sustained mostly minor injuries in an airplane fire in South Korea, authorities said yesterday, with local media suggesting the blaze might have been caused by a portable battery stored in the overhead bin. The Air Busan plane, an Airbus A321, was set to fly to Hong Kong from Gimhae International Airport in southeastern Busan, but caught fire in the rear section on Tuesday night, the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. A total of 169 passengers and seven flight attendants and staff were evacuated down inflatable slides, it said. Authorities initially reported three injuries, but revised the number
A colossal explosion in the sky, unleashing energy hundreds of times greater than the Hiroshima bomb. A blinding flash nearly as bright as the sun. Shockwaves powerful enough to flatten everything for miles. It might sound apocalyptic, but a newly detected asteroid nearly the size of a football field now has a greater than 1 percent chance of colliding with Earth in about eight years. Such an impact has the potential for city-level devastation, depending on where it strikes. Scientists are not panicking yet, but they are watching closely. “At this point, it’s: ‘Let’s pay a lot of attention, let’s
‘BALD-FACED LIE’: The woman is accused of administering non-prescribed drugs to the one-year-old and filmed the toddler’s distress to solicit donations online A social media influencer accused of filming the torture of her baby to gain money allegedly manufactured symptoms causing the toddler to have brain surgery, a magistrate has heard. The 34-year-old Queensland woman is charged with torturing an infant and posting videos of the little girl online to build a social media following and solicit donations. A decision on her bail application in a Brisbane court was yesterday postponed after the magistrate opted to take more time before making a decision in an effort “not to be overwhelmed” by the nature of allegations “so offensive to right-thinking people.” The Sunshine Coast woman —
BORDER SERVICES: With the US-funded International Rescue Committee telling clinics to shut by tomorrow, Burmese refugees face sudden discharge from Thai hospitals Healthcare centers serving tens of thousands of refugees on the Thai-Myanmar border have been ordered shut after US President Donald Trump froze most foreign aid last week, forcing Thai officials to transport the sickest patients to other facilities. The International Rescue Committee (IRC), which funds the clinics with US support, told the facilities to shut by tomorrow, a local official and two camp committee members said. The IRC did not respond to a request for comment. Trump last week paused development assistance from the US Agency for International Development for 90 days to assess compatibility with his “America First” policy. The freeze has thrown
RSS