Istanbul mayor wishes civilized race in local polls
Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu has expressed his wishes for civilized and Istanbul-oriented local polls, in his first reactions after Murat Kurum of the Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) was announced as the ruling party’s mayoral candidate for Türkiye’s largest city.
“First of all, I want to wish good luck to Mr. Kurum. I hope it will be a civilized poll with the focus on Istanbul and performances,” İmamoğlu told the reporters on Jan. 9 in Istanbul. İmamoğlu has been running Istanbul since mid-2019 and has been announced as the candidate of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) for another term.
“In this process, our focus will be the 16 million Istanbul residents. We will talk to them, listen to them and share our opinions about the process,” he said.
On a question, İmamoğlu underlined that the current structure of the political alliances is different from 2019 in which he was the joint candidate of the CHP and the İYİ (Good) Party. “I have expressed that the current political alliance will not be like the one in 2019 and therefore this process will be different and difficult,” he said. The İYİ Party will nominate its own candidate for Istanbul and other cities in these elections.
İmamoğlu said this time he is creating the Istanbul Alliance so that societal unity and urban togetherness can prevail. “For example, at least 65 percent of the people living in this city know that constructing the Kanal Istanbul by dividing the city is harmful to Istanbul. That’s why I say, ‘We are against this,’” he stated.
Repeating his wishes for civilized polls, İmamoğlu, however, stressed that he or his aides would retaliate to any uncivilized or ill-intentioned rhetoric and acts from his candidates through the course of the local polls.
The mayor stressed that instead of looking to the past, he is always interested in the records he wants to break in serving the people.
Türkiye will go to local polls on March 31.
