The candidate list of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) for the upcoming municipal elections in Istanbul’s districts shows its confidence in incumbent mayors. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced the names of the party's candidates for 39 districts of Türkiye’s most populated city on Saturday.

Twenty-two among them were incumbent AK Party mayors, while the party decided to endorse candidates of its ally, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), in two districts. In three districts, incumbent mayors were fielded for a fourth time, while mayors of Gaziosmanpaşa and Üsküdar were nominated for a third time. In six districts, the party nominated its local branch directors as mayoral candidates.

Earlier this month, the party nominated former Environment, Urban Planning and Climate Change Minister Murat Kurum for the seat of the mayor of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB) but winning the districts is also important for the party seeking an integrated approach to the city’s administration. Although it lost the IBB seat to the Republican People’s Party (CHP) in the 2019 elections, the party managed to retain seats in most districts.

Winning districts that have traditionally been strongholds of the opposition will also cement the party’s successful tenure in municipalities and the country’s administration for more than two decades. In Bakırköy, run by the CHP for years, the party nominated Ali Talip Özdemir, a former minister of environment like Kurum who served two tenures as the district’s mayor. Özdemir is also the oldest among candidates announced on Saturday, at the age of 71.

The party already announced candidates for mayors of all big cities, and candidates for mayoral seats in districts are expected to be rolled out in the coming weeks. The AK Party fielded candidates in 74 provinces, while it decided to endorse the candidates of its ally, the MHP, in the remaining provinces.

Months after it secured a majority in Parliament and had its leader installed to the top office again, the AK Party faces a critical challenge. Municipal elections in March will be a litmus test for the party to measure the public support for cities' administrations it controlled for years.

Starting on Jan. 7, the party disclosed all candidates for big and small cities. Candidates announced by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan are a mix of reliable names, successful incumbent mayors, senior officials of the party and former ministers. Erdoğan last Thursday unveiled the names of candidates for 48 provinces, including the capital Ankara. The list was similar to the one unveiled on Jan. 7, with most incumbent mayors nominated again, such as Konya's Uğur Ibrahim Altay or Gaziantep's Fatma Şahin. However, eight names who served for a long time as AK Party mayors were replaced with new candidates. Some were mayors of provinces affected by the February 2023 earthquakes. The party has already signaled new candidates for those provinces. In some places, the party turned to former and current bureaucrats, such as Kars Governor Ziya Polat, nominated for Adıyaman and Abdullah Erin, a Mardin-born former governor nominated as a candidate for the same southeastern province.

In Ankara, the party turned to Turgut Altınok, a veteran mayor who long ran the working-class Keçiören district and cultivated wide public support, though he switched parties over the past decades. Altınok has a similar background with stints in nationalist parties like his main rival Mansur Yavaş, who runs for the main opposition CHP.

The AK Party is trying to win back control of the main cities from the CHP after unprecedented defeats in the 2019 elections. The CHP rose to power in Istanbul and Ankara in the 2019 elections, puncturing the aura of political invincibility the AK Party garnered for more than two decades, thanks to overwhelming public support. Erdoğan has set himself the goal of winning back both cities along with opposition-held Izmir after securing reelection last year for a five-year term as president.

Erdoğan last Thursday said that their main rival, the CHP, was a hostage of imperialist circles supportive of PKK terrorism.

"Our country's second-largest party, the CHP, is acting as a servant of imperialism," Erdoğan told supporters during the event where candidates were announced. "We are not only going to liberate our cities and give them proper services. We will also save them from these servants of imperialism and terrorism," he said. "Terrorism" here refers to the CHP's close ties with the pro-PKK Green Left Party (YSP), informally known as the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), a successor of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP). Though the latter signaled they would not endorse the CHP candidates as they did in earlier elections, it left room for a possible alliance in some cities.

Meanwhile, the opposition parties are taking their time to announce their picks. The Good Party (IP), a former ally of the CHP, for instance, is expected to disclose the names later this month. The New Welfare Party (YRP), which endorsed Erdoğan in the general elections in 2023, appears undecided on renewed support in municipal elections in big cities. The party, led by Fatih Erbakan, the son of Erdoğan's political mentor, the late Necmettin Erbakan, has so far announced 309 candidates, including 10 for the big cities.