Posted by Voters in Turkey have gone to the polls for local elections as the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, seeks to bring Istanbul back under his party’s control in a showdown with his last major challenger, the incumbent mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu.
“Let Istanbul return to its rightful owners … You need to rescue this ancient city from the oppression of the CHP,” Erdoğan told attenders at one of two pre-election rallies he held in Turkey’s largest city, referring to the opposition Republican People’s party (CHP).
Erdoğan attended prayers on the eve of the vote, at the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, a highly symbolic former Byzantine church that was converted back into a mosque under his rule after decades as a museum.
İmamoğlu swept to victory in 2019 in a blow to Erdoğan’s rule, prompting the Turkish president to demand a rerun that then ended in a stronger result for İmamoğlu.
Yet the mayor’s campaign for a second term has proved challenging. Those with knowledge of campaign spending estimate that Erdoğan’s Justice and Development party (AKP) have outspent Imamoğlu and the CHP in Istanbul by at least three to one in an effort to retake the city, which accounts for approximately a third of the country’s GDP.
“It’s a David-versus-Goliath story now,” said Selim Sazak, the head of Sanda Global, an Ankara-based consultancy that advised several campaigns during the local elections, by both the opposition and the government.
The AKP selected the former environment minister Murat Kurum, born and raised in Ankara, to challenge the charismatic Istanbul mayor for a seat that Erdoğan held from 1994 to 1998 – only furthering the impression that Erdoğan is seeking to bring Istanbul back into the central government’s sphere of influence.
However, some of Kurum’s recent jabs at İmamoğlu have backfired, notably his decision to tell the latter that he should “go and manage a meatball shop”, in reference to a popular Turkish staple.
Imamoğlu made plenty of use of Kurum’s comments on the campaign trail as evidence that his challenger is out of touch with the average Istanbulite, telling a crowd of supporters: “Do you know why I love this election? Both the meatball maker and the minister are equal [at the ballot box].”
Erdoğan’s efforts to place himself at the forefront of the fight to retake Istanbul has also angered many people in the city. Turkey has been plagued by an economic crisis linked to his policies, one that has hit the populations of major cities the hardest.
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“That son of a bitch raised inflation himself; that’s enough,” said Burhan, who asked his family name be withheld.
He said he had previously voted for the AKP but opted for Imamoğlu this time around as he remained unhappy at the lack of economic progress since Erdoğan’s presidential victory last year.
About 61 million people across the country, including more than a million first-time voters, are eligible to cast ballots for all metropolitan municipalities, town and district mayorships as well as neighbourhood administrations.