The President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, today (Sunday) announced general elections in the country to be held on May 14, about a month before the date set by law for the elections in the country.
"I am grateful to God that I will go hand in hand with you, the young people who go out to vote for the first time, for the elections that will be held in May," said the Turkish president in a conversation with students in the city of Bursa.
This is the first time the president has mentioned the exact date of the elections, which are expected to challenge his more than two decades of rule in the Muslim country.
Public opinion polls in the country consistently show that the transition to the presidency will be close and they constitute the most difficult electoral challenge for Erdogan to moderate the political battles since he came to power in the country.
Erdogan was quoted in the past as interested in bringing forward the elections, apparently thinking that the deepening inflation and the economic crisis in the country are playing against him at the polls and as a result time is working against him.
A senior member of the Justice and Peace party, Hashel Hashel, said that the advance of the elections was intended to avoid them being held during the summer vacation season when many travel outside the country.
The mayor of Istanbul, Akram Imamoglu, photo: Reuters
In recent years, Erdogan has been almost obsessively engaged in dismantling the centers of power that oppose his rule and weakening the power of institutions such as the army, the police, the free media, the parliament and the courts in the country.
However, Erdogan's rule continued to allow the opposition to operate in a country that received a burst of energy and public support due to the economic crisis and the charismatic figure of the mayor of Istanbul, the country's largest city, Ehram Imamoglu.
Imamolu, who was elected mayor in 2019, inflicting a stinging defeat on Erdogan's close associate Binali Yildirim, became a leading figure in the Turkish opposition and declared that he intends to run for the country's presidency.
Because of this, Imamoglu became a target for Erdogan's regime and in December he was sentenced to two years in prison in a case of insulting a public servant.
In a survey conducted by one of the largest polling institutes in the country, it emerged that 64 percent of the respondents believe that the verdict given was unjust and that Imamoulu should be released and allowed to participate in the presidential elections.
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