The Turkish opposition party CHP nominated the arrested mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, as its presidential candidate. More than 14 million people took part in intra-party voting. This was stated by the head of the CHP party Ozgur Ozel, informs Turkish edition of NTV.
According to Özgür Ozel, more than 1.6 million registered members of the CHP party took part in the vote. At the same time, the party decided to make the elections open and involve Turkish citizens in voting.
“In this way, more than 14 million people cast their votes, of which more than 13.2 million voted specifically for Ekrem Imamoglu.” he noted.
The wife of Ekrem Imamoglu Dilek spoke at a rally in Istanbul:
“Today was a very difficult day for us. They think they can get rid of Ekrem Imamoglu by arresting him. Ekrem Imamoglu beat you four times, he will beat you the fifth time. He will beat you even if he is on the street, he will beat you even if he is not there.”
We will remind that on March 23, the criminal court of Istanbul arrested the opposition mayor Ekrem Imamoglu on charges of corruption. The mayor’s advisor Murat Ongun was arrested together with him.
The Turkish prosecutor’s office charges Imamoglu with corruption, aggravated fraud, extortion and falsification of tenders. The Ministry of the Interior of Turkey said that after the official arrest, Ekrem Imamoglu was removed from the duties of the mayor of Istanbul by a court decision.
