The ruling Justice and Development Party's (AK Party) 27th Consultation and Evaluation Meeting will be held Oct. 5-7 to draw a road map for the upcoming local elections.

President and AK Party Chairman Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will preside over the meetings in the capital Ankara along with ministers, parliamentarians, headquarters directors and party founders.

For the local elections, scheduled for March next year, the AK Party is expected to do special work in some key provinces, particularly commercial capital Istanbul and Ankara.

The party also expected to initiate the candidate application process in September, while interviews are scheduled to start in late October. Over the course of interviews, presumptive nominees will present their projects. The Candidate Evaluation Commission in the party will evaluate both the candidates' projects and whether they will be reciprocated by society. The commission will provide alternative names for each municipality. Following the evaluations, President Erdoğan will decide on the final names.

The AK Party won 18 out of 30 metropolitan municipalities in the 2014 elections with 60 percent of the votes. The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) won six metropolitan municipalities with 20 percent of the votes, while the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) won three metropolitan municipalities with 10 percent of the votes. Meanwhile, the AK Party and the MHP have been signaling that they might continue their alliance in the local elections.