As new elections loom, the now-leading candidate in the PM race, and current Mayor of the nation’s capital, Istanbul, finds himself sitting in jail thanks to the incumbent, and second-place contender Recep Tayyip Erdogan. After the arrest and imprisonment, the leading candidate, Ekreme Imamoglu, won his party’s primary, officially making him an opposition candidate.
Local elections happened to follow the arrest, leading to a major defeat for Erdogan’s party in all the major cities, including Istanbul. The jailed candidate said he would not back down, claiming, just before he was arrested, “We are up against huge bullying. But I will not back down. I love you all. I entrust myself to the people. I will be standing tall.”
More than 1,100 detained in Turkey amid huge demonstrations over mayor’s arrest – Europe live | Europe– www.theguardian.com
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Turkey’s interior minister said 1,133 people had been detained since protests began on 19 March, AFP reports.
There have been large-scale demonstrations in cities across Turkey since last Wednesday over the arrest of Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, the main political rival of president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
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