Istanbul’s city council, in which the opposition Republican People’s Party holds a majority, elected an acting mayor on Wednesday after Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu was jailed on corruption charges that he and his supporters deny.
Last week’s arrest of Imamoglu, the biggest political rival of President Tayyip Erdogan, sparked the largest anti-government protests in over a decade and led to mass arrests after hundreds of thousands took to the streets in mostly peaceful demonstrations across the country.
The 314-member city council, where the main opposition party holds a majority, elected Nuri Aslan to govern Istanbul with 177 votes.
The acting mayor will run the city until the end of Imamoglu’s term while he awaits trial.
