A recent survey conducted by Ankara-based polling company Ank-Ar shows that jailed İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu would defeat President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan by a significant margin if a presidential election were to be held now, the Kısa Dalga news website reported.
According to the results, 46.8 percent of respondents said they would vote for İmamoğlu, the main opposition Republican People’s Party’s presidential candidate, while only 34.6 percent expressed support for Erdoğan. The poll also showed that 9.7 percent of voters were undecided and 8.9 percent said they wouldn’t vote.
When undecided voters were proportionally distributed based on party alignment, İmamoğlu’s support rose to 57.4 percent, while Erdoğan’s increased to 42.6 percent, giving İmamoğlu a 14.8-point lead.
İmamoğlu, who became a key opposition figure after his landmark victory in İstanbul’s 2019 mayoral election and his re-election as the mayor of İstanbul last year, is seen as the post powerful rival of Erdoğan, whose increasingly authoritarian rule has faced growing criticism at home and abroad.
Turkey’s next presidential election is slated for 2028, but the opposition has said it wants it to be held earlier since the arrest of İmamoğlu last month.
İmamoğlu was arrested on March 23 on corruption charges, which many critics view as politically motivated. His detention on March 19 ignited widespread protests, the largest in Turkey since 2013, escalating political tensions.
İmamoğlu faces multiple investigations and had already been sentenced to more than two years in prison and barred from politics in December 2022 for allegedly insulting members of Turkey’s Supreme Election Board (YSK). The mayor has appealed his sentence, which is still pending.
There are claims that Erdoğan wants to sideline İmamoğlu if he tries to seek another term as president.