Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu faces new legal hurdle to political ascent

Case over alleged bid-rigging in 2015 could lead to popular opposition candidate being barred from elections next year

Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu campaigns for the opposition Republican People's Party candidate ahead of the May 28 presidential run-off. Reuters

For the second time in six months, the opposition mayor of Istanbul faces a court case that could lead him to be banned from politics ahead of elections in which Turkey’s ruling party will try to retake the city.

Ekrem Imamoglu has been charged with involvement in rigging a public works tender in 2015, when he was mayor of Istanbul’s Beylikduzu district. Prosecutors have called for a jail sentence of three to seven years.

Although the sentence would likely be suspended, Mr Imamoglu could be legally barred from politics and removed from office if convicted.

Since he won re-election last month, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stressed the importance of his Justice and Development Party, or AKP, retaking Istanbul.

Before Mr Imamoglu gained Istanbul for the centre-left Republican People’s Party, or CHP, in 2019, the city had been under the control of Islamic-orientated parties for 25 years – first the Welfare Party and then the AKP.

Mr Erdogan, a native of the city, was the Welfare Party mayor for Istanbul from 1994 to 1998.

Many commentators see the case against Mr Imamoglu as politically motivated, just as a conviction last December was viewed as a means to prevent him from standing against Mr Erdogan in the presidential election.

In the run-up to CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu declaring his candidacy, Mr Imamoglu was seen as one of the front-runners to challenge Mr Erdogan.

The December case, which the mayor is currently appealing, saw a political ban and a prison sentence of two years and seven months handed down for insulting members of Turkey’s election board.

Mr Imamoglu had denied referring to the board as “fools” over its decision to re-run the 2019 mayoral battle in the wake of his first-round victory. He won the second vote by a much larger margin.

The government maintains Turkey’s judiciary is independent but many observers argue that the courts have become an arm of Mr Erdogan’s executive presidency.

Monica Marks, assistant professor of Middle East politics at New York University Abu Dhabi, described the latest case as “yet another step towards eliminating meaningful political competition that might challenge Erdogan’s grip on power”.

“The new indictment against Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu – though wrapped in a thin veil of legality – represents nothing less than a bald-faced attempt to kneecap Turkey’s most charismatic opposition politician ahead of the country’s local elections next year,” she said.

The Ministry of Interior’s investigation into tender-rigging alleges a public loss of 250,000 liras – about $10,600 at today’s exchange rate, but $86,000 at the time – in a bid to provide services and staff to Beylikduzu Municipality in December 2015.

The municipality, based in Istanbul’s western suburbs, was headed by Mr Imamoglu between 2014 and 2019.

He did not attend Thursday’s initial hearing in Istanbul, which was adjourned to November. His lawyer, Kemal Polat, described the case as one “without legal basis” and said the mayor was not directly involved in the tender process.

“The prosecutor's office opened this case despite the finding of the Council of State [Turkey’s highest administrative court] and despite the fact that the expert witness did not make such an accusation during the investigation,” he said.

Lawyer Veysel Ok, co-director of the Media and Law Studies Association, contrasted a lack of legal action over corruption claims made against AKP municipalities to the charges against Mr Imamoglu.

“For decades, we have been reading a lot of news about corruption allegations in municipalities close to the government in Turkey,” he said.

“So far, however, not a single official close to the government has been investigated. On the contrary, there is a siege from all sides to the municipalities belonging to the opposition parties.”

Mr Ok said that “the only motivation is to criminalise these people and throw them out of the political arena”.

Compared to the December case, he said, the vote-rigging charge could prove more damaging.

“Although it has no convincing basis for public opinion, the corruption allegation is a seriously trust-shattering claim.”

Mr Imamoglu not only represents a threat to Mr Erdogan in next year’s local polls but also on the national stage in years to come.

While the CHP evaluates its next steps following last month’s defeat, it seems likely that Mr Kilicdaroglu will face a leadership challenge if he does not step down.

As in the wrangling over the opposition candidate earlier this year, Mr Imamoglu is viewed by many as the party’s best hope for the future.

At age 53 – compared to Mr Erdogan’s 69 years and Mr Kilicdaroglu’s 74 – he is seen as young and dynamic. His socially conservative background is potentially appealing to AKP voters, as are his roots in the Black Sea region, a stronghold for the ruling party.

He also has a record of winning despite the “unfair electoral playing field” he faced in 2019, Ms Marks said.

Since the presidential election, Mr Imamoglu has led calls for a shake-up of the CHP, demanding “a radical and detailed change”. However, he has not directly challenged Mr Kilicdaroglu and the two appeared on friendly terms following a meeting in Ankara on Wednesday.