There are certain allegations in Turkish politics; they are constantly repeated so that their veracity cannot be debated. The more they are repeated, the more they are taken as truth, those who question them are labeled as “outsiders” and those who object are labeled as “traitors”. Politics is conducted not with reason but with applause. This new political language of the modern era focuses not on convincing the truth, but on convincing the masses.
“The claim that ”15 million votes were cast for Ekrem İmamoğlu“ is a typical political fairy tale of this era. The subsequent claim that ”we collected 25 million signatures" is a cruder, noisier, more organized version of the same tale.
There is no verified fact, but there is a persistently constructed narrative, and this narrative is dragging the nomination issue in the CHP into the realm of mythology, not political reason. What is happening today is not a candidate nomination process, but a simulation of legitimacy.
The Magic of Numbers: What 15 Million Tells and Hides
The “15 million votes” attributed to Ekrem İmamoğlu is not a presidential vote.
These are the votes:
- Without the assurance of the SBE,
- Without being legally binding,
- Without a rival candidate,
- Without clarifying the definition of voters,
- Without an oversight mechanism,
It was used in a process of appeal/pre-election organized by the CHP, open to non-party voting, the results of which did not produce any constitutional equivalent.
In some regions, these so-called “votes” were even higher than the total number of voters in that region, according to internal party data and information from the field.
I mean:
- No ballot box,
- There is no voter list,
- It is unclear who voted,
- But the results are in millions.
Beyond political exaggeration, this picture produces statistical impossibility. In political sociology, this is called organizational mobilization, not will. If there are more “votes” than the number of registered voters in a region, there is not a popular choice, but a centrally constructed number.
Hence this figure:
- It is not the result of an election,
- It is not a declaration of popular will,
- A candidacy does not produce legitimacy.
At most, it shows this: CHP organization can mobilize the masses in certain centers with certain reflexes.
An uncontrolled tendency is presented as the result of a national election; regional inconsistencies, mathematical contradictions, voter surpluses are deliberately covered up. Because the aim is not to tell the truth, but to make it believed.
The True Function of 15 Million: Armor Production, Not Nomination
“The narrative of ”15 million votes" is not an indication of candidacy, but a political shield of protection.
This narrative is a hastily constructed armor for Ekrem İmamoğlu ahead of possible and upcoming administrative, legal and political processes against IBB. The aim is not to win elections; it is to create a perception of impunity.
The message is this:
“Every move directed against me will be considered directed against 15 million people.”
This is not democratic legitimacy; it is a method that has an equivalent in political literature: preventive legitimacy blackmail. It is an attempt to build a barrier between the judiciary and politics with mass numbers, an attempt to make legal processes politically expensive.
That's why numbers get bigger, processes get faster, criticism is suppressed. Because for armor to be effective, it only needs to look thick; it does not need to be solid.
Legal Reality: Candidacy is Born of Circumstances, Not Slogans
In Turkey, presidential candidacy is not only a political but also a constitutional status. This status has indispensable conditions and these are not negotiable.
In order to become a presidential candidate, it is mandatory to have a higher education degree.
There are serious legal and administrative debates in the public regarding Ekrem İmamoğlu's diploma.
This is the issue:
- It is not a simple polemic,
- It is not social media gossip,
- It is an objective legal question that directly concerns the capacity to run for office.
To build legitimacy on “15 million” before the legal validity of the diploma is finalized is to suspend the law and replace the slogan with the law.
No Due Process, No Candidacy
In Turkey, presidential candidacy starts with the following steps:
1. Elections are decided (by the Parliament or the SBE)
2. The SBE announces the election calendar
3. Candidate applications are made within this calendar
📌 If there is no election decision
📌 If there is no SBE calendar
→ There is no legal candidacy
Today, when none of these conditions exist, it is a deliberate simulation of legitimacy to produce the rhetoric of “the candidate of 15 million” for a name whose candidacy conditions are disputed.
The Tale of 25 Million Signatures: Thickening the Armor
This time the narrative of “25 million signatures” was put into play.
Özgür Özel's entrance to the rally area with a truck, the 25 million signatures allegedly collected for Ekrem İmamoğlu and the demand for “early elections”...
But the reality on the ground is this:
- Provincial and district presidencies,
- Under pressure from the headquarters,
- Unbeknownst to most of the members,
- By writing phone numbers,
- By filling out the name lists
created lists
Information from the field shows that a large number of these signatures were written without the knowledge of the people named. This is not a signature campaign; it is a political declaration produced by organizational coercion.
If the CHP is confident, the solution is simple:
Notary audit.
Independent professional organizations.
Transparent sorting.
But it is not done. Because it is not about verification; it is about producing spectacle.
The Illusion of Early Elections: Politics, Not Signatures
Early elections are not possible through petition campaigns, but through an opposition that is effective, coherent and based on the real problems of the people.
Early elections come not with lists loaded on trucks, but with political pressure on the ground against the cost of living, injustice, unemployment and precariousness. An opposition that spends party energy on Silivri scenarios, personal armor production and defensive reflexes cannot create early elections.
Early elections are possible not with actors trying to save themselves, but with a political line that is concerned with the people's problems, that comes face to face with the people, that touches the lives of the people. Otherwise, signatures will multiply, slogans will grow, but the political outcome will not change.
Bitter but Inescapable Truth
Ekrem Imamoglu:
- He is not the candidate of 15 million,
- He cannot be a candidate for a process that has not started legally,
- The conditions for candidacy are seriously questionable,
- It has not been tested at the national level in presidential elections.
Saying this is not hostility; it is a demand for political seriousness. If the opposition once again plays politics with myths, suppresses the law with applause, and mistakes armor for reality, it will be left with the same question on the night of the polls:
“How did it happen?”
Kılıçdaroğlu's 2023 Vote Success
Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu received approximately 26 million votes in the 2023 presidential election. This figure represents the real choice and democratic will of the people. This result concretely demonstrates the party's strength and popular support in the field; it shows that real votes are decisive, not “so-called numbers” such as 25 million signatures or 15 million appeals. Kılıçdaroğlu's success also clearly proves how detached from the will of the people the nomination debates in the CHP are being conducted.
The CHP's candidacy has often become a field determined by internal balances, backstage negotiations and “cliché success stories” pumped in the media, rather than the people's preference. While 25 million signatures may seem like a huge theoretical support, its real equivalent on the ground, 15 million votes, does not find a concrete response. This gap is an indication of the party's distancing from the real demands of the grassroots and of the confidence-shattering effect of internal political maneuvering.
The collapse of this fairy tale reveals a truth that has long been suppressed not only by the CHP but also by Turkish politics: Popular support is measured not only by symbolic indicators, but also by actual field performance and the popular response. Otherwise, post-election disappointments and “failure scenarios” are inevitable.
From the point of view of political analysis, this is a lesson: Whether 25 million signatures are collected or 15 million votes are targeted, political success cannot be sustainable without building on tangible popular support and trust. The collapse of the CHP's candidacy fairy tale is not just a party mistake, but a serious warning about the “visual and rhetorical” side of political culture in Turkey.
Last Word
Politics is not done with slogans; it is done with truth.
Numbers are there to tell the truth, not to replace it.
“15 million votes” is not a fact, it is an armor.
“25 million signatures” is not data, it is a demonstration.
And political history has shown time and again:
Armor does not win elections. Truth wins.