Barring Istanbul mayor from presidential bid would only boost opposition, party leader says

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By Birsen Altayli

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey’s main opposition leader said on Thursday any move to legally bar Istanbul’s detained mayor from running for president would only strengthen support for their party, and that any candidate would beat President Tayyip Erdogan in elections.

In an interview with Reuters a day after Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, Erdogan’s chief political rival, was detained and charged, Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), said Erdogan feared any future vote.

Erdogan wants to appoint a trustee to replace Imamoglu, also from the CHP, and sever the opposition’s ties with Turkey’s largest city, Ozel said, in his first interview with foreign media since the mayor’s detention.

But the opposition would stage the “strongest democratic reaction” to any such move, Ozel said, speaking at the Istanbul Municipality headquarters building where he said he would remain until the mayor is released.

Imamoglu, seen as the CHP’s best hope to unseat Erdogan after 22 years running Turkey, was taken in on Wednesday facing charges of graft and aiding a terrorist group, a move that the opposition condemned as a “coup attempt” and that sparked nationwide demonstrations.

(Writing by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Huseyin Hayatsever; Editing by Jonathan Spicer and Gareth Jones)