Imprisoned Constantinople Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu announced yesterday, Wednesday, that he is joining the New Party, which was recently founded, after the leadership of his previous party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), was removed by court order following an unprecedented legal crackdown on the opposition.

Last month, opposition Turkish leader Özgür Özel and 90 other breakaway lawmakers founded a new political party, seeking to regroup in order to challenge President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after a court removed Özel from his position as chairman of the CHP and reinstated the party’s divisive former leader, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.

“I am resigning, after 17 years, as a member of the Republican People’s Party. This decision is the result of the values I believe in regarding the future of our country and the responsibility I bear toward our people,” Imamoglu wrote in a statement on X.

“Today we are opening a NEW path to build a stronger, more democratic and more hopeful future for Turkey,” he added, referring to the New Party. Imamoglu, Erdogan’s main political opponent, has been in prison for more than a year as his trial on corruption charges, which he denies, remains pending.

He had been selected as the CHP’s presidential candidate in an internal party vote a few days after his arrest in March 2025. His university degree, a necessary requirement for him to be eligible to run for president, was annulled by Istanbul University one day before his arrest. The New Party, which is already the second-largest party in parliament, is expected to attract most of the CHP’s voters; however, the broader fragmentation of the opposition could increase the president’s chances of extending his 23-year rule in Turkey.

The next elections are scheduled for 2028, but they could be held earlier.

The opposition and some rights advocacy organizations say that the crackdown, under which hundreds of elected officials as well as CHP members have been imprisoned since 2024, is politically motivated and undemocratic. The government denies this and maintains that the judiciary is independent.