The ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) expects another victory in the May 14 elections, and it did little to change its usual motto: "Keep Walking Without Stopping." The party, regardless, offers a new, dynamic legislative cadre for millions of supporters. The candidate list for lawmakers unveiled on Sunday shows a 65% change among lawmakers the party has in Parliament, while only 104 lawmakers are nominated again.

Party officials describe the new list as a fusion of the experience and the youth as the list includes first-timers for Parliament and veterans of the party, which has dominated the political landscape for more than two decades.

For the 28th term of the Turkish Parliament, the party aspires to retain its majority again as it did in most elections since 2002. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, one of the party’s founders, put the final touch on the candidate lists after consultations with fellow members for about one week.

The AK Party, for the first time, will include names from other parties in its candidate list as they agreed to endorse the candidacy of Erdoğan against three other contenders. As a result, four names from the Free Cause Party (HÜDA-PAR), including its chair Zekeriya Yapıcıoğlu, will run on the AK Party ticket in the legislative vote. Similarly, Democratic Left Party (DSP) Chair Önder Aksakal and two others from his party will run as AK Party candidates in the election in exchange for their contribution to the alliance, which also includes the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Great Unity Party (BBP) and New Welfare Party (YRP). Others announced their candidate lists earlier.

One of the most important changes in nominations was increasing affirmative action for women. In cities where AK Party could not afford to lose the election, female candidates were placed at the top of the candidate list. In total, 113 women were nominated for parliamentary seats. Among them are Ayşe Keşir, who currently heads the women’s branch of the party, Family and Social Services Deputy Minister Fatma Öncü, former women’s branch chair Lütfiye Selva Çam and Ayşegül Biçer, one of the "Diyarbakır mothers," the group of women who staged a lengthy sit-in against the terrorist group PKK abducting their children.

Biçer told the Sabah newspaper on Monday that she wanted to raise the voice of mothers louder at Parliament and confront lawmakers of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), which is accused of serving as the mouthpiece and accomplice of the PKK. Biçer joined the sit-in in 2019 and took her son back. "I hope all mothers will reunite with their children," Biçer, who continues her sit-in, said. "I vowed to be a voice for mothers who cannot cry, for children who cannot cry, to escape the clutches of the PKK. The PKK and HDP repeatedly threaten me. They set my house on fire. But I stood against them, and I will now run for the AK Party, so Diyarbakır will not be a place known for terrorism," she said. Biçer explained her primary purpose was to serve as a spokeswoman for the Diyarbakır mothers at Parliament. "I want to answer the defamation of HDP against them. I don’t think they’ll have the guts to talk to us at Parliament directly," she added. Biçer also hopes to crush the opposition’s pledges, including ending military operations in Iraq and Syria against the PKK.

The party also aims to reinvigorate its cadres, mostly people above 40 with younger names. Nisa Alptekin, however, won the title of the party’s youngest candidate at 19. Along with Eyüp Kadir Inan, head of the party’s youth branch who nominated from Izmir at 30, the AK Party boasts several other young candidates from all walks of life.

Among the new faces for Parliament will also be candidates with whom the public is already familiar, like Hulki Cevizoğlu, a prominent TV journalist and political pundit who has graced the screens since the 1990s. Şebnem Bursalı, another notable journalist, will run for the Istanbul constituency. From the sports world, AK Party nominated former footballer Alpay Özalan again. At the same time, Umut Arman Sonay, a member of the national swimming team, is a first-time candidate for the party. Former Süper Lig referee Kuddusi Müftüoğlu is also running.

Seda Sarıbaş may well become the most beautiful of Parliament as she was chosen in Miss Türkiye 2006. She will run for a seat in her constituency Aydın in western Türkiye. Yücel Arzen Hacıoğulları, a renowned musician who composed a promo song for the party’s "Century of Türkiye" campaign earlier, is nominated from Istanbul. Bahadır Yenişehirlioğlu, who is better known as Tahsin Paşa to millions, a role he played in the popular TV series "Payitaht Abdülhamid" as the loyal aide to the titular sultan, will try his luck in real politics in the modern era, this time for the AK Party.