ISTANBUL: Three
months ago Ekrem Imamoglu was a little-known politician in a fringe Istanbul
district who was attempting the near-impossible: to unseat Turkish President
Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AK Party from Turkey's largest city after 25 years in
power. Today - after having pulled off victory in March to become Istanbul
mayor, only to be ousted in May - he has emerged as a national sensation and
figurehead for the Turkish opposition.

His victory over
the AK Party (AKP) in the municipal vote dealt Erdogan one of the worst
setbacks in his 16 years of power. But Imamoglu had been in office less than
three weeks when Turkey's High Election Board annulled the results, citing
irregularities, after weeks of appeals by the AKP. Now the 49-year-old is
trying to win again in a re-run of the mayoral vote today, this time against an
AKP machine that has zeroed in on him with accusations of lying and terrorist
associations as well as legal threats.

Imamoglu has
denied the allegations from Erdogan, Turkey's foreign minister and his AKP
mayoral opponent Binali Yildirim, a former prime minister. In response the
former businessman has tried to stick to the low-key inclusive message that
handed him a narrow victory in the first campaign. There are indications the
scrapping of the election results, which many voters say was unjust, has
actually served to bolster his popular support.

Recent polls give
Imamoglu of the secularist Republican People's Party (CHP) a lead of as much as
nine percentage points over Yildirim of the Islamist-rooted AKP, far larger
than his 0.2 percentage-point victory on March 31. With his signature rimless
eyeglasses and "Everything will be fine" slogan on billboards across
Istanbul, Imamoglu has sought to leverage the election board's decision to
annul the results over irregularities including polling officials who were not
civil servants.

"Of course
we have a different agenda item in this election and that is democracy (for
which) we are at a turning point," he told Reuters this week. "Our
emphasis on the injustice and lawless intervention ... will continue until the
last minute."

Big rallies

On Thursday
Erdogan, who served as Istanbul's mayor in the 1990s, accused Imamoglu of
cheating in a televised debate by seeing the questions ahead of time, without
citing evidence. The Turkish leader has accused Imamoglu of being in cahoots
with US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara says is a terrorist and
blames for a 2016 failed putsch.

He also said
Imamoglu allegedly insulted the governor of Ordu, a Black Sea coastal province,
and added that if prosecuted over the issue, he could be barred from office
even if he wins. The annulment of Imamoglu's victory, and attacks on his
character, have however had the effect of raising his profile at home and
abroad.

His rallies this
month before thousands of CHP supporters, including on a three-city tour of
Turkey's Black Sea coast, are a far cry from the small face-to-face gatherings
and Facebook videos favoured in his initial campaign. "Do you know what a
political party opting to hurl constant insults and slander at its opponent
shows? It shows that they know they have lost," he told a rally on
Wednesday. Some media commentators have even earmarked him as a potential
presidential candidate.

"There's
this expectation that he is likely to be the face of the opposition," said
Deniz Zeyrek, a journalist at opposition newspaper Sozcu. "I believe he
will be in Turkey's political future, even if he loses." Imamoglu has also
been the subject of feature articles in Western magazines and newspapers. This
month he authored a column in the Washington Post, pledging to win again.
"I see little reason why Imamoglu would lose votes on June 23," said
Howard Eissenstat, nonresident senior fellow at Washington-based think-tank the
Project on Middle East Democracy.

But he added that
Imamoglu would want to win with a bigger margin to earn a definitive victory
and put an end to any potential claims of irregularities. However some
academics warn that Imamoglu could overplay his hand. "His challenge is to
use the cult of victimhood but still be defiant," said Galip Dalay,
visiting scholar at the University of Oxford's Department of Politics and International
Relations. "Too many big things - rallies, comments on national issues -
that could backfire." - Reuters