The Mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem İmamoglu, and several other senior members of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) were detained early this morning. The arrests come just days before the opposition party was expected to officially nominate İmamoglu as its presidential candidate. The CHP will hold primaries on Sunday, March 23, to elect its presidential nominee, and İmamoglu was widely considered the most likely choice. He had unofficially announced his candidacy earlier this month.

In recent months, however, there has been media speculations that in 2027 the president may schedule early election, possibly in March 2028, to secure a chance to be re-elected without requiring a constitutional change.

Earlier this year, the spokesperson of the ruling AKP, Omer Celik, said that the possibility of President Erdogan running again is “on the agenda for discussion” and that a possible “formula” for this will be considered, according to Turkish media.

Under the Turkish constitution, Erdogan cannot run in the 2028 presidential elections. However, the law allows an exception for a president in their second and final term if Parliament calls early elections.

In the local elections of March 31 last year, Erdogan’s ruling AKP lost the national elections for the first time since coming to power in 2002, with the CHP emerging victorious. AKP also suffered defeats in many of the country’s largest cities, including Istanbul and Ankara.