Plectani against Ekrem Imamoglou? With less than two weeks to go to the polls in Turkey’s municipal elections, the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) is in the government’s crosshairs and in the headlines with suspicions of a bribery scandal.

Turkish prosecutors are examining a video on social media that shows three CHP officials, Imamoglu’s party, and one of his advisers, counting wads of banknotes, allegedly amounting to in the amount of 15 million Turkish liras (about 395,000 euros at today’s exchange rate), in the local organization of the party in Istanbul.

Istanbul is at the center of the pre-election conflict, as the recapture of the municipality of Turkey’s largest metropolis is for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a personal bet and sealing his successes in last year’s presidential election. The 52-year-old mayor, current mayor of Istanbul, is considered today his most powerful political opponent which has highlighted the Kemalist opposition camp for the past 20 years. It is a common assessment that Istanbul, with its 18 million inhabitants, with a population greater than 131 countries of the worldis the “key” to power in the country.

The CHP denied the allegations, saying the money was the down payment for the purchase of the new building of the local organization in Istanbul in 2019, and that the footage comes from the office camera of a lawyer representing the property owner. The party blamed the lawyer for leaking the footage and insisted the lawyer tried to blackmail the party, even though the footage had nothing to do with “criminal activity”.

Imamoglu himself denied claims that money was used for any nefarious purpose, and said the video surfaced as an attempt of his opponents who seek to “topple him before the elections”.

Erdogan, for his part, going on the attack, argues that “the game has become even dirtier with the wads of cash”, stressing that “no one can to get rid of this dirty game of lies”. He also said that “our people will hold them accountable for their plans on March 31.”

Referring to the same issue, Justice Minister Yilmaz Tundes stated that prosecutors will definitely trace the source of the money, while on the CHP’s claim that the cash was raised through a donation campaign for the party’s new offices in Istanbul, he said such donations must be made in accordance with the regulation that requires parties to raise money only through bank transfers.

Today, the alleged seller of the CHP building, Ali Riza Braka, testified at the Istanbul prosecutor’s office as a suspect, while two executives of the local organization and a close associate of Imamoglu had testified in the previous days.