Who is Ekrem Imamoglu, who is said to be Turkey's next president?

After winning and preserving his position in Sunday's municipal elections, given a large majority of votes counted, 53-year-old Imamoglu is seen by many analysts as a possible future president.

He has many similarities with Erdogan -- both have led Istanbul, have roots from the eastern Black Sea region. In their youth, both were also passionate footballers.

Both men have a strong ability to attract voters, but when it comes to politics they are far apart. Imamoglu himself, a former businessman married to three children, has said: our “Ides with Erdogan are largely opposed to”.

Erdogan entered politics with an Islamic party and reformed the secular state since taking power in 2002.

By contrast, Imamoglu joined the Republican People's Party (CHP) in 2008 and became chairman of Istanbul's Beylikdüzüku district in 2014. Imamoglu's success is due to his ability to expand the CHP's appeal to attract more conservative voters.

He confirmed this in 2019, giving Erdogan's party (AKP) its biggest loss in two decades, defeating its candidate not once but twice.

A court cancelled his victory in March that year, only to win by a larger margin in the election run-off in June.

Istanbul's mayor created an image in the media, running viral campaigns on social networks, which on the one hand showed his profile, on the other hand shook the patience of many voters.

State media, meanwhile, tried to portray him negatively. In January 2022, pro-government media were filled with images of surveillance cameras showing him having dinner with the British ambassador at a fish restaurant, while Istanbul faced a storm.

His problems have been compounded by the fact that Erdogan has taken credit for many of the key projects that have modernised Istanbul in recent years.

Legal Disagreements

Imamoglu has faced several legal adventures. After his victory in 2019, a judge sentenced him to two and a half years in prison for insulting public officials. The Court of Appeals has not yet ruled on this case.

Consequently, Erdogan was forced to resign as mayor in 1998, while in 1999 he was sentenced to ten months in prison on charges of inciting religious hatred and racial intolerance.

Last year, another court opened a case against Imamoglu on charges of manipulation of tenders bearing a sentence of between three and seven years. Erdogan's critics view the cases as an attempt to undermine it politically. Erdogan and his AKP have certainly denied such a claim.

Despite obstacles from Ankara, as is marked by Imamoglu, he said his party has offered services and development in Istanbul, a city of 16 million people leading Turkey's economy.

Istanbul is far from the Black Sea province of Trebizondi, where Imamaglou was born in 1970 and passed, as he says, a happy childhood between the green <x0-natural, sea and stone streets”.

He studied business administration at Istanbul University, graduating in 1994, the year Erdogan became mayor before joining his family's construction business.

Imamoglu recently recalled the day he and Erdogan met for the first time. In the mid-1990s, after Erdogan became mayor, he visited the traditional meatball restaurant run by young Imamoglu in Istanbul's Güngiora district.

During the first few months of his term I've been waiting for him”, Imamoglou said. He ate meatballs in my restaurant.

I didn't get the money. He won't pay that bill for as long as he's alive.

Many analysts now predict further success for Imamoglu.

If these elections are not manipulated, he will become president in 2028”, Ozer Senchar, head of the Metropol polling firm, told Reuters before the election./Abcnews. al

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