Turkish opposition has started collecting signatures for early presidential elections
The opposition Republican People’s Party of Turkey (CHP) has initiated a nationwide campaign to collect signatures demanding early presidential elections. About this informs İmece Newspaper.
The CHP party started this initiative immediately after the “Rally for the Freedom of Ekrem Imamoglu”, which took place on March 29. Activists of the party launched a campaign throughout the territory of Turkey. The goal is to reach the number of signatures equal to the number of votes received by Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the 2023 elections — 27,730,000.
“In this way, the CHP wants to powerfully and symbolically convey to the public and the government the people’s demand for early elections”, the party explained.
We will remind that last week large-scale protests were held in Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Kocaeli, Izmit and Bursa. People took to the streets to protest the detention of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, who is considered one of the key opposition leaders.
Protesters perceived his detention as an attempt to pressure the opposition ahead of the elections. According to the demonstrators, Imamoglu should have become a presidential candidate from the opposition bloc. They also accused the current President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, of using the persecution for political purposes.
