Istanbul City Hall Council has elected Nuri Aslan as Acting Mayor

The Council of the Istanbul Municipality has elected Nuri Aslan, an associate of the arrested mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, as acting mayor. This was announced on March 26 by the NTV channel with reference to the voting results.

It is specified that there are 314 seats in the Istanbul City Hall Council. In the first round of voting, Aslan received 173 votes, and the second candidate, Zeynel Abidin Okul, received 123. According to the rules, in the second round, one of the candidates must get two—thirds of the votes, but Aslan could not do this, although he was leading in the voting.

Then, if no one gets the required number of votes in two rounds, then a simple majority must be obtained in the third and last round. At this stage of the voting, 177 members of the council chose Aslan, and 125 chose the second candidate.

Mayoral feeling: Turkey is preparing for new protests after the arrest of the head of Istanbul

What strategy will the current authorities of the country choose to resolve the conflict?

Law enforcement agencies issued a warrant for Imamoglu's detention on March 19. According to media reports, an anti-corruption operation has been launched against the Istanbul administration. It concerns the holding of city tenders, as well as clarifying the details of the interaction of opposition officials with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party. The mayor of the city was arrested on March 23 by a court decision. After that, the Interior Ministry announced that Imamoglu had been temporarily suspended from his duties.

Later, mass protests began in Turkey in connection with the detention of the mayor. Local police have detained 1,418 people since the start of the protests. It was reported that the police in Istanbul used tear gas against the protesters. On March 20, the Turkish Interior Minister announced that six policemen had been injured during a protest in Istanbul. Rallies were also held in Ankara.