Istanbul’s new mayor urges Erdoğan to cooperate and solve city problems

Ekrem İmamoğlu, the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) mayor who according to unofficial results decisively won the Istanbul mayoral election rerun on Sunday, has called for a meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in his victory speech, suggesting cooperation is key to serve the 16 million residents of Turkey’s largest city.

It was Erdoğan’s AKP that pushed for a second election after alleging that serious irregularities had taken place in the first vote on March 31, which İmamoğlu won by a small margin. The party got its way when the Supreme Election Council annulled the election on May 6, but the initial count of Sunday’s vote shows İmamoğlu extending his lead to over 750,000.

“I want to call out especially to the head of state, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The importance of cooperation and harmony between the central and local administrations is clear when it comes to solving Istanbul’s urgent problems, like the refugee issue, the need for more metro lines and the need for earthquake preparations”, İmamoğlu said.

After the first vote on March 31, Erdoğan said the CHP mayor would have problems governing the city since the AKP had won a majority of Istanbul’s districts.

In the lead up to the rerun, after a video emerged appearing to show İmamoğlu using disrespectful language about the governor of the Black Sea province of Ordu, Erdoğan said the CHP candidate would not be able to become mayor of Istanbul until he apologised to the governor. Insulting public officials is a crime in Turkey.

But the resounding success İmamoğlu enjoyed in Sunday’s vote, in which he won a landslide victory over the AKP’s Binali Yıldırım with a lead that by initial counts exceeds 750,000 votes, means the ruling party will have to think twice before blocking his attempts to govern Turkey’s largest city and financial powerhouse.

“We are talking about the needs of 16 million citizens. I am ready to work with you towards the roadmap and principles I set out to citizens before the election, and this is my demand”, İmamoğlu said.

The CHP mayor added that political issues must not be allowed to overshadow the needs of citizens, and fighting poverty and unemployment and providing services to the people of Istanbul should be a priority.

İmamoğlu said he wished to complete the legal process to receive his mayor’s mandate and then meet with Erdoğan to discuss his roadmap as soon as possible.