Türkiye’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) has been preparing for next year’s local elections since 2019, and all its cadres are ready to face the challenge, according to the head of the party’s local administrations.
"We have studied our lesson very well, starting the next day after the last municipal polls on March 31, 2019," Yusuf Ziya Yılmaz told reporters in the eastern Sivas province on Saturday. Yılmaz is also a lawmaker from the same city.
Calling the ruling party a "political service movement that believes the effort will yield success," Yılmaz stressed no member was allowed to "procrastinate on the job" and said the party could mobilize for the election "even if it were brought forward to 20 days later."
"Unlike opposition parties that covet rank and status, serving and the people are our ever-present primary focus," Yılmaz said.
The AK Party has "no worries" about the upcoming vote, the Sivas MP added.
The members will "knock on every door and reach out to every single individual in the coming days," he said.
Less than six months are left until Türkiye goes to polls again to elect office-holders in 81 provinces, including mayors.
The AK Party is set to start shaping its candidate list in November for the upcoming local elections scheduled for March, a party official recently said.
Applications for mayoral candidates will open after the party convenes its extraordinary council on Oct. 7 as it concentrates on campaign strategies, Deputy Chair Hamza Dağ informed.
The upcoming polls will be a test for the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) municipalities, which govern over 50% of the population, namely Türkiye’s top metropolitans, Istanbul, the capital Ankara and Izmir.
The AK Party has been working to rekindle lost support in especially Istanbul, which, politically, is seen as the most important administrative region in Türkiye and carries symbolic significance for Erdoğan since his time as mayor served as a launchpad for the foundation of the AK Party in 2001 and their subsequent election in 2003.
In the 2019 local elections, the party lost control of Istanbul and Ankara for the first time in 25 years and five of Türkiye’s largest cities to the CHP.
Since general elections in May, it has been conducting voter satisfaction surveys and tallying up the "shortcomings" of its opponents. It has also launched a comprehensive field effort to draft election declarations suitable for the needs, demands and deficits of the local fabric of each of the 81 provinces before next year’s race.
While an election manifesto or possible candidates are not yet clear, the party and its partner, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), are likely to maintain their fruitful People’s Alliance for next year’s vote, as well.
Erdoğan and MHP Chairperson Devlet Bahçeli met in late August and agreed to kick off preparations for picking mayoral candidates and drawing up electoral strategies, local media reported.
On the opposition side, the CHP and its former allies, torn apart by ideological differences and the defeat in May, are scrambling to put fresh candidates in the fast-approaching race.
Pundits say, without joining forces, especially without the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), a party linked to the PKK terrorist group, which enjoys some 10% support nationwide that helped CHP clinch the megacities in 2019, both parties are looking at grim odds next March.