All about Ekrem İmamoğlu, Mayor of Istanbul

Ekrem İmamoğlu (born June 4, 1970) is a Turkish politician who served as Mayor of Istanbul from April 17, 2019 until May 6, 2019. He was elected in the 2019 Istanbul mayoral election as the joint Nation Alliance candidate of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the İYİ Party. He was formerly the Mayor of Beylikdüzü, a western district of Istanbul, between 2014 and 2019.

İmamoğlu emerged as a dark horse candidate to be the Nation Alliance’s joint candidate for Istanbul Mayor, overtaking more prominent contenders such as Muharrem İnce, the CHP’s 2018 presidential candidate. In the run-up to the 2019 Turkish local elections, his campaign received worldwide attention for its mild-mannered and unifying approach, resulting in a narrowing of opinion polls against his rival, People’s Alliance candidate Binali Yıldırım.

On the eve of the elections, İmamoğlu gained a narrow lead in the mayoral race, with initial results showing his lead to be around 23,000 votes. His lead was eventually cut to 13,729 after a series of recounts backed by the government. İmamoğlu was sworn in as Mayor of Istanbul on 17 April, 17 days after the election, following the conclusion of all recounts. Following his upset victory in which the ruling AKP significantly outspent him and received more media coverage, İmamoğlu was called a rising star in Turkish politics and a potential candidate to challenge Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the 2023 Turkish presidential election.

On 6 May 2019, the Supreme Electoral Council convened and voted to annul the results of the mayoral election İmamoğlu claimed victory over. Members on the Council accepted the Justice and Development Party’s objection to the local election results in Istanbul with seven members voting in favor of calling a new election and four against. The election board also cancelled İmamoğlu’s mayoral certificate and the Interior Ministry is set to name an interim Mayor. A new election has been set for 23 June 2019 in which Ekrem İmamoğlu plans to run again.

Early life and political career

İmamoğlu was born in June 1970, in the town of Akçaabat, west of the city Tra­b­zon, in Turkey. Dur­ing early child­hood he lived in the rural com­mu­ni­ties Ce­vi­zli and Yıldızlı, south­west of Akçaabat. He grad­u­ated from Tra­b­zon High School, where he played am­a­teur soc­cer and hand­ball. In 1987 his fam­ily moved to Is­tan­bul. He at­tended Is­tan­bul Uni­ver­sity, and re­ceived a Bach­e­lor’s de­gree in busi­ness ad­min­is­tra­tion and Mas­ter’s de­gree in human re­source man­age­ment. Fol­low­ing his grad­u­a­tion, he joined his fam­ily’s busi­ness in construction. In 1995, he mar­ried Dilek Kaya, and to­gether they have three children. In 2002 he be­came a man­ager with Tra­b­zon­spor, and he was also a vice pres­i­dent of the Tra­b­zon­spor B.K. bas­ket­ball team.

İmamoğlu joined the Re­pub­li­can Peo­ple’s Party (CHP) in 2008, and was elected as the head of the party’s youth wing in 2009. On 16 Sep­tem­ber 2009, he was se­lected by the CHP as the pres­i­dent of party’s local chap­ter in the Is­tan­bul dis­trict of Bey­likdüzü. He was then re­elected to this po­si­tion on 8 March 2012, be­fore re­sign­ing on 15 July 2013 to run for mayor of Beylikdüzü. The elec­tion was held on 30 March 2014, as part of the 2014 Turk­ish local elec­tions, and İmamoğlu won with 50.44% of the vote, de­feat­ing the in­cum­bent AK Party can­di­date Yusuf Uzun.

Fol­low­ing the an­nounce­ment of Is­tan­bul Mu­nic­i­pal­ity Mayor Kadir Topbaş’s res­ig­na­tion on 23 Sep­tem­ber 2017, İmamoğlu was nom­i­nated by the CHP to re­place him. In the Is­tan­bul Mu­nic­i­pal As­sem­bly elec­tion to ful­fill the re­main­der of Topbaş’s term, İmamoğlu lost to the AK Party can­di­date Mevlüt Uysal after three rounds, by a mostly party-line vote of 125 to 179. The CHP again nom­i­nated İmamoğlu for the 2019 Is­tan­bul may­oral elec­tion on De­cem­ber 18, 2018. Both the İyi Party, which formed an al­liance with the CHP, and Peo­ples’ De­mo­c­ra­tic Party (HDP) de­clined to nom­i­nate can­di­dates, which may have in­creased sup­port for İmamoğlu.

The elec­tion was held on 31 March 2019, with İmamoğlu de­feat­ing AK Party can­di­date Bi­nali Yıldırım by roughly 25,000 votes ac­cord­ing to the elec­tion day to­tals re­leased by the Supreme Elec­toral Coun­cil. The AK Party has dis­puted the re­sult on be­half of its can­di­date, al­leg­ing that in­valid votes may have swayed the elec­tion, and erected large posters in the city pro­claim­ing Yıldırım as the elec­tion’s winner. İmamoğlu has in turn ac­cused the AK Party of being “bad losers.” Fol­low­ing a gov­ern­ment-backed re­count, İmamoğlu’s lead was re­duced to roughly 16,000 votes.

İmamoğlu’s may­oral tenure came to an end when on 6 May 2019, the Supreme Elec­toral Coun­cil an­nulled the re­sults of the elec­tion and re­moved him as Mayor of Is­tan­bul. Ac­cord­ing to the YSK, the de­ci­sion was taken be­cause some pre­sid­ing of­fi­cers and polling staff were not civil ser­vants. Turk­ish law stip­u­lates they must be civil servants. How­ever, many have called this ac­tion as a move to undo the will of the vot­ers, who handed a nar­row but fiercely con­tested vic­tory to the op­po­si­tion can­di­date. A new elec­tion has been set for late June. In the mean­time, an in­terim Mayor is set to be se­lected by the In­te­rior Min­istry of Turkey.

Born: June 4, 1970 (age 48)
Town: Akçaabat, Trabzon, Turkey
Nationality: Turkish
Political party: Republican People’s Party
Spouse: Dilek Kaya İmamoğlu (m. 1995)
Children: 3
Alma mater: Istanbul University

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