Opposition primaries: Voter turnout likely high after Imamoglu's arrest

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00:00Well, I am sure the opposition will rally behind him and support him even though he

00:06is in jail.

00:08People have campaigned for electoral office from prison in Turkey before.

00:13And with today's informal election, which he will certainly win as the opposition's

00:21candidate for president, they will continue to support him until he is actually disqualified

00:29from running in the next presidential elections.

00:32You know, with the charges leveled against him this morning, Ekrem İmamoğlu is now

00:37facing five separate court cases.

00:41So the chances of him being convicted on at least one of those cases is rather high.

00:48And if he is convicted, you can be certain that part of the sentence will be his banning

00:54from politics for five years.

00:56I think President Erdogan is going to choose the timing of the early elections very carefully.

01:03He will wait until Ekrem İmamoğlu has been disqualified.

01:08Erdogan has let everybody know that İmamoğlu is the candidate he fears most.

01:16However, the opposition does have an alternative.

01:20The mayor of Ankara, Mansur Yavaş, a quieter person than İmamoğlu, less charismatic,

01:28is popular.

01:30And opinion polls have said that Yavaş is actually more popular than İmamoğlu and

01:36that he would beat President Erdogan in an election.

01:40So Jasper, I mean, you mentioned this briefly, but let's detail then how has the voting gone

01:46today in that primary election for the opposition to choose its candidate?

01:51Well, the turnout appears to have been heavy.

01:54I don't have the figures overall, but people have been streaming to polling stations in

02:00Ankara.

02:01They've been phoning each other, telling their friends to vote.

02:05And the polling station outside the Muhtar's office, the Muhtar is the neighborhood headman,

02:11if you like, in my street, the man in charge said 1,500 people had voted today, including

02:18two citizens in their 90s who came along in their walking sticks and several people in

02:26wheelchairs.

02:27I asked him what had surprised him about this election, and he said the way people had come

02:34without any obligation to express their anger.

02:38Now, this primary is an informal election.

02:43The Supreme Electoral Council of Turkey will not recognize it.

02:48President Erdogan will laugh at it.

02:50But this exercise has given that half of the country that tends to vote against Erdogan

02:57an opportunity to rally behind İmamoğlu and take courage from seeing that lots of

03:04people share their view.

03:06And their view is simple, that the opposition should be able to choose its own candidate

03:12and not have its candidate disqualified by the president.

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