Poll shows İmamoğlu as only candidate who could beat Erdoğan in election

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Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu is the only potential candidate that could win against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in a potential presidential election, a January 2020 political survey by Bahçeşehir University's Social Research Center revealed.

İmamoğlu was chosen by 41.4 percent of survey respondents while Erdoğan was chosen by 39.1 percent, daily Cumhuriyet reported.

When the 6.4 percent undecided answers were distributed to the other options, İmamoğlu's popularity rate rose to 49.27 while Erdoğan's remained at 44.34 percent.

Survey results also showed that İmamoğlu was the only potential candidate to receive support from the voter bases of all of the opposition parties: He received 96 percent of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) vote, 76 percent of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) vote and 81 percent of the Good Party (İyi Parti) vote.

Meanwhile, Erdoğan was revealed to have 93 percent of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) vote and 56 percent of their coalition ally Nationalist Movement Party's (MHP) vote.

In a scenario in support was polled regarding a hypothetical race between former presidential candidate and CHP deputy Muharrem İnce against Erdoğan, the former received 32.6 percent of the vote, losing to Erdoğan, who received 43.1 percent.

If Good Party leader Meral Akşener were to run against Erdoğan, she would receive 30.1 percent while the latter would receive 40.8 percent.

In a question asking participants who they would vote for if Erdoğan ran against former Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan, Erdoğan received 37 percent while the latter came in at 26.1 percent.

The survey included 2,507 people from 131 neighborhoods in 26 cities and aimed to determine the issues that were most important to voters, how pleased voters are with government policies, and voters' choices in a potential election.