 has launched an online petition calling for early elections and demanding the release of İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, one of the country’s most prominent opposition figures and his party’s presidential candidate for the next election.){kind=link}
Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has launched an online petition calling for early elections and demanding the release of İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, one of the country’s most prominent opposition figures and his party’s presidential candidate for the next election.
The campaign, announced on the party’s social media accounts, invites citizens to sign at benimimzam.net (“my signature”), a platform created by the CHP.
“I want my candidate by my side and the ballot box in front of me! For the freedom of our presidential candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu and for early elections: Sign now! There is no salvation alone, either all of us together, or none of us,” the party said in its message.
Turkey is scheduled to hold the next general election in 2028, but due to an ongoing crackdown on the CHP, the party has been calling for early elections.
İmamoğlu was detained on March 19 and shortly thereafter arrested on corruption charges criticized as politically motivated. His arrest, widely seen as targeting the biggest political rival to longtime President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the 2028 presidential election, sparked Turkey’s worst protests since 2013 and drew international condemnation.
One day before his detention, İstanbul University cancelled İmamoğlu’s university degree, effectively disqualifying him from holding or running for public office.
Under Turkish law, candidates for president must have a university degree.
He faces multiple investigations and has so far been convicted twice. Earlier in July a court sentenced him to 19 months in prison for insulting and threatening İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor Akın Gürlek. The sentence follows an earlier conviction in December 2022, when İmamoğlu was given two years, seven months in prison for allegedly calling members of Turkey’s top election board “fools.” The verdicts are currently under appeal.
Under Turkish law, if the sentences are upheld by an appeals court, İmamoğlu will be prohibited from holding public office.
The CHP has been under a harsh crackdown for about a year that has so far led to the arrest of 17 CHP mayors and dozens of party officials.