Turkey detains president's main election rival, sparking protests

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00:00Our next clashes have been taking place between protesters and police at Istanbul University.

00:05It's one of several demonstrations that have sprung up across the city as people

00:09flout a ban on gatherings imposed in the wake of the arrest of Istanbul's mayor.

00:14Ekrem Imamoglu from the country's main opposition party was detained on charges of corruption

00:20and aiding a terrorist group. His Republican People's Party say the arrest of President

00:25Erdogan's top rival is politically motivated.

00:28Well, let's cross live to Jasper Mortimer now. He's in Ankara for us.

00:32Jasper, what's reaction been like to these arrests? We've of course seen

00:35all these protests springing up. Tell us what people have been saying.

00:41Yes, well, as soon as the arrests took place this morning, the governor of Istanbul,

00:47who was appointed by the government, he's not an elected official, banned demonstrations in

00:53the city for four days. Any political meeting was outlawed. Despite that ban, demonstrations

01:02have been taking place. There was a demonstration of thousands of people outside the Istanbul City

01:08Council offices this evening, and half an hour ago, Özgür Özel, the leader of the opposition,

01:16was addressing the crowd there. It is to his party that Imamoglu belongs. Imamoglu was charged

01:26on bribery, forgery, membership of a criminal organization, even having links to the PKK,

01:35the Kurdish insurgency group. His wife, Dilek Imamoglu, told the press today,

01:41one can only laugh at such charges. It seems that that half of the electorate that votes against

01:48Erdogan certainly believes Dilek's assessment of these charges. There have been demonstrations

01:58outside the Istanbul police headquarters today. Hundreds of students demonstrated outside

02:06Istanbul University. They clashed with police who used pepper spray. There have been

02:12three demonstrations, small demonstrations, here in Ankara, where I am, and there was a

02:20forced demonstration in Izmir. There's also been a financial reaction. The lira fell against

02:30the dollar by 10 percent this morning. Afterwards, it rebounded somewhat.

02:36The stock exchange index ended down on yesterday's level by 6.7 percent.

02:48Well, Jasper, just talk us through some of the context to all of this. Why the uproar?

02:53Well, the context of this is the prospect of early elections. The next elections are due in 2028,

03:02but to run in those elections, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would have to change the

03:08constitution, which limits a president to only two terms of office. Now, Erdogan doesn't have

03:15the votes in parliament to change the constitution, but he can avoid having to change the constitution.

03:23He can avoid having to do that if he calls early elections, in which he would be able to run.

03:30And he is expected to do that, but no dates for these early elections have been announced.

03:38In the last election held in Turkey, local elections, in March last year, for the first

03:46time, Erdogan's party finished second in the national vote. The main opposition party,

03:51whose rally was outside the Istanbul City Council offices this evening, the CHP, that finished

03:58first. And so far, opinion polls have been indicating that CHP candidates, notably

04:09Imamoglu, would beat Erdogan in a presidential election. However, Erdogan has phenomenal

04:18staying power. He has come from behind in opinion polls leading up to previous elections and won

04:26the election. So one mustn't underestimate him. But today's moves against the opposition,

04:34because he didn't only arrest Imamoglu, he arrested 83 other people as well. Today's

04:41moves suggest that for the first time, Erdogan is seriously worried that the opposition could

04:49beat him. Jasper, thank you so much for bringing us up to speed there. Jasper Mortimer reporting

04:55live from Ankara.

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