Can Okar

Turkey still has democratic instincts. But tonight was like a stranded, thirst-addled pauper bumbling into a meagre fountain in the desert. It was welcome and it gives hope but we're still surrounded by a desert.

Can we all just pause for a moment and think what it means that the whole of Turkey just shut down, en masse, to watch an election debate about a municipality mayoral election? There is something seriously wrong. But there is also something to be hopeful about.

I'm watching A Haber again. The best thing about A Haber is that no-one watches it. Except me and other masochists apparently.

Fact check: 1) The moderator wasn't unfair, he just wasn't very good and made things up as he went along. 2) Yıldırım may not have lost horrifically (which was a risk) but he most certainly did not strike lightning on İmamoğlu. That level of spin is counterproductive.

A Haber is already complaing about "unfair moderation". And the AKP are promoting a hashtag doing a pun on Yıldırım saying "lightning struck". The debate lasted three hours but it's clearly going to be spun for another three days at least.

Just to tie a bow on this, I posted my adjudication of the debate in a separate thread which you can read here. Now off to relax for a bit - hope you enjoyed the ride...https://twitter.com/canokar/status/1140367231181828097?s=20 …

Good night for now - my apologies if I couldn't be too interactive but it really wasn't easy to simultaneously translate, type, apply debate analysis and look at comments all at once. As I say, I'm incredibly happy that I got to review a debate in Turkey. For once :)

But let me finish on a positive note. TURKEY NEEDS DEBATE. This was not a perfect example of debating by any means but if Turkey is to solve its current political, economic and social crisis, it will have to be through critical discourse. Tonight was an important night.

Yıldırım tried to land punches on data privacy but in my view completely missed his target. His attacks didn't land and the key argument of the whole three hours was on who can make promises - an opposition or a 25 year incumbent. In my view, that was the strongest point.

On content, the first hour was too retrospective, the second hour was far too random and the final hour was all over the place and rushed. İmamoğlu landed quite a few punches on the role of a belediye and vakıfs and how neighbourhoods can elicit real change.

The moderation was poor in part because of the format - far more interaction should have been allowed. But it was also because İsmail Küçükkaya entered the debate too much and was scattergun in his selection of the flow of questions. It was entirely random at time.

İmamoğlu remained calm throughout which was a point of concern in advance. Yıldırım was low-energy but towards the end he loosened up. On content, it's difficult to judge because the moderation was so poor. Nonetheless, I would give a clear İmamoğlu victory.

My adjudication on the first election debate in Turkey in my adult life is below. You can read my live-tweets from the whole three hour marathon but in my mind, the debate was not really a debate, very few votes will change but it was deeply welcome.https://twitter.com/canokar/status/1140318215639392256?s=20 …

Moderator manages to make the last question about himself which is really quite fitting. He asks if they thought he did a good job. How could they answer that? "No mate, you were a dumpster fire."

Yıldırım invites İmamoğlu for a cup of tea. I think it's too late to change the image of this debate in which he interrupted far too much and appeared quite angry at various points but he's pulling back now.

We're now in closing statements. If there was a fear that İmamoğlu would get angry, it was unfounded. He stayed calm. If there was a fear that Yıldırım would be low-energy, it was founded. But in the last five minutes he started to relax. Not a game changer but he chilled out.

İmamoğlu making in my view an unnecessary point about not selling alcohol in municipality places he developed. Who cares? But I sense he's pushing for the conservative vote.

İmamoğlu says that he will use local and clean energy options for the Metrobüs. That is one point that sounds a bit like Yıldırım's big data and AI plan. Is there even a Turkish company that makes green, local buses?

İmamoğlu on transport: "They couldn't solve Istanbul's problems - people waste a lifetime on the roads". This is true. I used to commute from Feneryolu to Etiler every day for three years. I think 4 of my 9 lives were lost on that asphalt.