Turkey opposition aims to hit back at Erdogan in local elections
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00:00 This man is the biggest rival of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
00:05 Ekrem Ä°mamoÄŸlu is the mayor of Istanbul and the key figure in the opposition party CHP.
00:20 Today he's campaigning in Kasimpasa, where Erdogan was born.
00:24 It's a conservative neighbourhood that has long supported Erdogan's party, the AGP.
00:29 But even here, mounting inflation and poverty make people question their support for the Turkish President.
00:35 One kilo of meat now costs 600 liras, but it's still about Erdogan, Erdogan.
00:42 But what did he do? He built bridges and roads.
00:45 I've lived in Istanbul for 55 years and I have no idea where the last bridge built over the Bosphorus is.
00:51 The local elections on the 31st of March are key to Turkey's future.
00:56 After losing the presidential elections last year,
00:59 the Turkish opposition must retain its control of big cities to remain a force to be reckoned with,
01:04 says political scientist Berk Esen.
01:07 If the main opposition party loses control of some of these municipal governments,
01:12 particularly Istanbul and Ankara, then they will be deprived of a platform at the local level
01:18 and key resources that they really need in order to withstand against government pressure.
01:25 If they win, they will be able to continue challenging Erdogan.
01:29 His name may not be in the ballot, his face is still everywhere at this AGP rally in Istanbul.
01:35 Even the party's candidate for mayor, former minister Murat Korun,
01:39 knows very well that he is not the main star of this event.
01:42 Erdogan began his political career as a mayor of Istanbul.
01:53 For him, the fight to win the city back is a personal one, so he might as well campaign for it himself.
02:00 Frankly, I don't know much about Murat Korun.
02:03 People don't really know him, but we know our president.
02:06 We know that he never chooses the wrong people.
02:08 So if he chose Murat Korun, then we support him 100%.
02:12 After over 20 years in power, the Turkish president recently said these elections would be his last.
02:18 But looking at these crowds, one does wonder, would these people have come if he wasn't there?