İstanbul’s incumbent opposition mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu is leading the polls by more than three points against the mayoral candidate of the ruling Justice and Development Party, a former minister, according to the results of a recent survey.
The survey showing İmamoğlu ahead of AKP mayoral candidate Murat Kurum was conducted by the Asal research company. The company, which interviewed 2,500 people, shared the results of the survey on its X account.
Less than three months remain before Turkey’s local elections, scheduled for March 31.
Bu Pazar İstanbul Büyükşehir Belediye Başkanlığı Seçimi Olsa..
Ekrem İmamoğlu:%36,4
Murat Kurum:%32,8
DEM Parti Adayı:%4,4
YRP Adayı:%3,8
İYİ Parti Adayı:%3,0
Diğer Parti Adayları:%3,4
Kararsızım:%11,0
Oy kullanmayacağım:%5,2🗓9-12 Ocak 2024 👥2.500 pic.twitter.com/SKzDiQuYys
— Asal Araştırma (@AsalArastirma) January 15, 2024
When asked who would they vote for if the mayoral elections had been held next Sunday, 36.4 percent of respondents said they would vote for İmamoğlu, who was followed by Kurum, who received 32.8 percent support.
The survey showed 11 percent of voters in the city are still undecided as to which candidate they will vote for.
Kurum was followed by the candidate of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party). The party, whose predecessor supported İmamoğlu in the 2019 elections, has not yet nominated a mayoral candidate for İstanbul and might support İmamoğlu again to prevent the AKP from retaking the city’s management.
İmamoğlu ended the years-long AKP rule in İstanbul when he defeated the party’s candidate in a repeat election in 2019. The election was held a second time due to the AKP’s claims about irregularities in the vote, as a result of which İmamoğlu won by an even greater margin.
Erdoğan on January 7 announced the nomination of Kurum, a former environment minister and current AKP lawmaker, as his party’s mayoral candidate to win back İstanbul from İmamoğlu.
İmamoğlu is viewed as Erdoğan’s most powerful political rival. His name was among the possible presidential candidates for the general election held in May in which Erdoğan secured another term against former Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu in a runoff. The popular mayor faces a political ban and a jail sentence, if upheld by the top appeals court, on insult charges due to his remarks about election authority officials in 2019 as a result of a politically charged trial.