President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Tuesday launched his campaign for Türkiye’s critical May elections with a massive rally in Afyonkarahisar, a western province where the foundations of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) were first laid in 2001.

"On the 100th anniversary of our republic, we are starting the road to the 'Century of Türkiye' from Afyonkarahisar," Erdoğan told the crowds.

Speaking on the successes of his party on one hand, Erdoğan criticized his main opposition on the other, saying that "the six-party bloc cannot rule Türkiye."

"How can a man who fails to unite even his own allies around the same table stand up for Türkiye?" he said, referring to his main challenger Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and his six-party bloc Nation Alliance.

He slammed the opposition for relying on "imperialists" and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). "We do not grovel before the imperialists or their vigilantes, we only bow before Allah, but only for him," Erdoğan added.

Acknowledging his administration’s past collaboration with the IMF, Erdoğan said, "The opposition told us we had to borrow from the IMF but we refused and cut all ties with IMF by 2013 when we paid off all our debt."

"To top it off, we have boosted our central bank reserves from $27.5 billion at the time to three digits," Erdoğan said. "This is the AK Party."

Recalling his catchy slogan of "The world is bigger than five," he declared: "We have objected to the global system and imperialism at the U.N. We have spent our entire political career standing up to imperialists.

"We will not take lessons on anti-imperialism from those who have no other project than to surrender their country to the political and economic system of the imperialists," Erdoğan said.

Calling out to Kılıçdaroğlu, he said: "If you want to learn about our stance against imperialism, ask your backers in the West."

Twenty-six days are left to the elections, he told cheering crowds, pledging that the AK Party will continue to serve the Turkish people with ever more projects and investments.

Following Erdoğan’s speech, the party’s parliamentary candidates Ali Özkaya, Ibrahim Yurdunuseven, Hasan Arslan, Ferda Ertürk, Hakkı Öztürk and Ethem Karahan were introduced.

The AK Party has so far been intent on keeping its election campaign low profile in the aftermath of the Feb. 6 earthquakes that killed more than 50,000 people in Türkiye’s southeast. Still, campaign rallies will continue, though in a somber mood, minus the traditional campaign songs blared from loudspeakers across the country.

So far, Erdoğan’s appearances have been limited to inauguration and launch ceremonies for several projects, from groundbreaking for new houses for earthquake victims to the launch of a state-of-art warship. As part of the election agenda, he will hold rallies in 40 out of 81 provinces of Türkiye and visit two cities every day until May 14.

The party officials have emphasized that the campaign will highlight the past services of AK Party governments to the country with promises of "more to come" as part of the "Century of Türkiye" vision Erdoğan announced last year and reiterated in the launch of the party’s election manifesto on April 11.

The party is promising to lift Türkiye into a better league in the international community, expand social rights for different societal sections and established a Family and Youth Bank funded by the natural gas and oil income of Türkiye to serve the welfare of titular groups.

Erdoğan’s campaign also targets his opposition, particularly the divide between the "table for six" and the Nation Alliance led by Republican People’s Party (CHP) Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.

The opposition bloc consists of parties wildly different in their political ideologies and small parties founded by former members of the AK Party. The campaign will also highlight apparent support from terrorist groups, namely the PKK, for the opposition bloc.

In less than 26 days, some 64 million Turkish citizens both at home and abroad will be heading to polls to elect Türkiye’s 13th president and all 600 members of Parliament.

While four presidential candidates are confirmed to officially compete in the upcoming vote, including Erdoğan, Kılıçdaroğlu, Homeland Party (MP) Chair Muharrem Ince, and the ATA Alliance's far-right candidate Sinan Oğan, the race is likely to be primarily between Erdoğan and Kılıçdaroğlu.

Two opinion polls conducted by Areda survey company in March and April show 50.8% support for Erdoğan and 43.1% for Kılıçdaroğlu.

In the case of a run-off, surveyors also overwhelmingly endorsed Erdoğan, marking some 52.6% for him and 47.4% for Kılıçdaroğlu.

This is the first election since Türkiye held its first multiparty elections (again on another May 14, some 73 years ago) in which such a high number of alliances will compete. Although the partnerships were born out of necessity for the opposition, which has repeatedly failed against Erdoğan and the AK Party, the AK Party has also found new allies in its People’s Alliance over the years.

Unlike the opposition alliance, whose sole aim is to end the lengthy AK Party governance, the People’s Alliance claims its unity is for the sake of unity itself for Türkiye’s interests.

Under Erdoğan, the AK Party gained a parliamentary majority in the 2002 elections by winning more than 34% of the vote, a surprising result for a party new to the political scene.

Erdoğan led the AK Party to more victories in local and general elections in the ensuing years. He is a formidable rival to presidential contenders, who are not as seasoned. Having survived a coup attempt and multiple attempts to close down his party, he now hopes to succeed again against opposition as united as ever.

His main challenger Kılıçdaroğlu did not see any success at all in politics, except for succeeding the late Deniz Baykal in 2010 as leader of the CHP. He is relatively new to the upper echelons of politics and was elected lawmaker the same year the AK Party thrust into the political scene.