Istanbul Mayor Imamoglu seeks reelection amid unfulfilled promises

As Türkiye prepares for the March 31 local elections, Ekrem Imamoglu eyes a second term as Istanbul’s mayor.

The sitting mayor of the 16-million megapolis, Imamoglu, representing the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), has been facing a range of challenges, with his tenure already being chequered by criticism stemming from several unfulfilled electoral promises to controversies during his ongoing five-year term.

As he started his term with great fanfare, he quickly came under public scrutiny because of passing a slew of controversial measures for urban transformation, housing development and traffic management.

Imamoglu's focus on national politics, including active involvement in presidential election rallies last year, also drew criticism since the Istanbul electorate found their mayor’s attention completely devoted towards portraying CHP’s presidential candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu in the best possible light while distracting himself from the city’s pressing issues such as disorganised public transportation.

Amid debates over his priorities and effectiveness, Imamoglu's bid for reelection raises questions about the future of Istanbul.

Here’s a closer look at Imamoglu and his mayorship:

Who is Imamoglu?

Born in 1970 in Trabzon, Imamoglu graduated from Trabzon High School and holds a degree in Business Administration from Istanbul University. With a master's degree in human resources and management, he started his career in 1992 in a family-run construction company, where he worked as the chairman of the executive board.

He served as the CHP’s head of Beylikduzu district in 2009 and was elected as mayor of Beylikduzu on March 30, 2014.

He is married to Dilek Imamoglu and has a daughter and two sons.

Few election promises fulfilled

In the run-up to the 2019 mayoral elections, Imamoglu had campaigned on the promise of reducing urban poverty and upgrading the city's infrastructure, including metro lines and green spaces.

Regarding urban transformation, Imamoglu made a set of big promises aimed at improving the living conditions of Istanbul residents.

But several of these commitments are yet to be fulfilled, while some of them have only been partially realised in these past five years.

According to a Turkish website that assesses the fulfilment rate of pledges made during the 2019 municipal elections, Imamoglu has achieved only seven percent of his commitments.

One of Imamoglu's promises was to ensure residency guarantees for Istanbulites and to resolve property title issues. However, progress on these fronts since the commencement of his term remains incomplete.

He also committed to constructing social housing not only in the city outskirts but also in central areas. Through KIPTAS, the municipality's company that carries out housing projects, he had promised to produce 100,000 new units during his five-year term, 40 percent of which were to be designated as rental properties. However, only 9.652 of those housing units have been completed, according to official data.

As part of the Single Building Transformation project, apartment buildings in the city that required renewal would be reconstructed. However, in the past five years, only one building at Kadikoy in the city centre has undergone the promised transformation.

Imamoglu had also made extensive promises to tackle traffic congestion, one of the major challenges of Europe's most populous city, Istanbul. Another initial focus was on expanding Istanbul's metro system, aiming for a total of 630 km of metro lines, including plans for 11 new funicular lines.

At the end of five years, his achievement in metro construction remains debatable, with official announcements indicating that only 47 km of metro lines have been completed, most of which had been initiated by his predecessors, who belonged to the AK Party.

Some analysts challenge even these numbers, claiming that only seven kilometres have been completed. As of now, Istanbul has a 328 km-long metro system, with 215 km operated by the municipality's Metro Istanbul subsidiary, significantly below Imamoglu's 2019 pledge of 630 km. As a result, he actually inaugurated only one of the 11 funicular lines he had pledged.

Imamoglu had also pledged free parking for residents within their neighbourhoods, as part of his commitment to easing the burden on citizens. He also promised that residents would no longer be required to pay for parking at ISPARK facilities in their neighbourhoods, also promising to make parking lots at public institutions accessible to the public beyond their regular working hours.

However, Istanbulites continue to pay for ISPARK, whose prices have skyrocketed ten-fold in the last five years, while the promise of new parking facilities for 100,000 vehicles fell short, as only around 30,000 new parking lots were added during his term.

From green transformation to strengthening infrastructure, numerous other poll promises that propelled Imamoğlu to the mayoral seat in 2019 are yet to be realised.

He has fully or partially fulfilled certain pledges, though, such as providing free transportation for mothers during the first four years after childbirth, opening city restaurants with more affordable prices, and initiating the construction of sports halls, swimming pools and parks. Official data released by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality also indicate that over 170,000 job-seekers have secured placements through the municipality's mediation centres.

Dining with ex-British ambassador while Istanbul was snowed in

Two years ago, Imamoglu had faced a barrage of criticism when images of him dining with former British Ambassador Dominic Chilcott at a restaurant surfaced, while the city struggled with heavy snowfall, causing widespread disruption.

As photos circulated on social media, the hashtag “#imamoğluistifa” (“Imamoglu, Resign” in Turkish) gained traction, with users expressing their frustration with the mayor's apparent detachment from the troubles faced by citizens. Imamoglu defended himself with a social media statement, asserting that he had been at the restaurant "during a break", hinting he had otherwise been involved in working to provide relief to citizens.

2023 Presidential election campaign

Imamoglu also held several rallies last year to support the Nation Alliance’s presidential candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who lost the race to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. These rallies in various cities across Anatolia meant he had to leave Istanbul for several weeks, causing outrage among Istanbulites for shifting his focus towards national politics.

If Kilicdaroglu had won the 2023 presidential election, Imamoglu would have been one of the six names suggested by the Nation Alliance, of which CHP was a part, for the position of vice president.