With less than five months left until local elections in March 2024, Türkiye’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) is starting to shape its candidate list across 81 provinces.

Registration opened on Thursday for people looking to throw their hat in the ring for mayoral, provincial and district councils and will remain open until Nov. 17, party officials announced.

Hopefuls seeking mayoral candidacies must submit their resignations by Dec. 1, Ali Ihsan Yavuz, the head of the AK Party’s election board, told reporters in Ankara.

On Nov. 19, the party will also start asking the public to name their favorite candidates.

Instead of an application fee, the party asks candidates to donate sums ranging from TL 5,000 ($175) for city council candidates and TL 50,000 for mayoral candidates for the Palestinian cause.

"Donations will be transferred to the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority for the humanitarian needs of our Gazan brothers and sisters who are affected by this brutal massacre," Yavuz said, referring to Israel’s ongoing attacks on the besieged Palestinian city.

As of the new year, the election period and campaigns will officially start, Yavuz continued.

Having won parliamentary and presidential elections in May, the party is entering the race with a full head of steam, with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan focused on seizing back the capital Ankara and Türkiye’s biggest city, Istanbul – where Erdoğan grew up and launched his political career as mayor.

"Winning the local elections too is pivotal for us," Yavuz said Thursday. "Bringing AK Party services to all municipalities is a cornerstone policy for us and that’s why we’re eager to recapture especially Istanbul and Ankara."

The AK Party lost control of Istanbul and Ankara for the first time in 25 years, as well as five of Türkiye’s largest cities, to its main opposition, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), in the 2019 elections.

Having renewed its controversial leadership, the CHP wants to maintain its hold on top constituencies. However, its six-party electoral alliance fell apart after May’s defeat and internal disagreements still divide the party, eroding its public favor.

The CHP’s allies – the nationalist Good Party (IP) and the PKK-affiliated Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) – will likely name separate mayoral candidates.

The AK Party, however, is working on public satisfaction surveys and voting trends, which will shape its decision to name candidates with its People’s Alliance partners, Yavuz said.

In Istanbul and Ankara, the party intends to compete jointly with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).