The Justice and Development Party (AK Party) will deliver true service municipalism and save Türkiye from a whirlpool of failures, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Tuesday while he unveiled his ruling party’s election declaration ahead of high-stakes local elections on March 31.

"Just as we have upheld the flag of our national willpower many times against guardianship pressures, terror attacks and imperialist schemes, we will emerge from this struggle with the same pride on March 31, as well," Erdoğan told a cheering crowd in Ankara.

Some 64 million eligible voters are set to elect mayors and local administrators in 81 provinces in March this year.

The AK Party is eager to recapture key cities, including Istanbul and the capital Ankara, both of which have been run by its main rival Republican People's Party (CHP) since it clinched a surprise victory in the 2019 elections for the first time in over two decades.

The president outlined his party’s election promises of "true municipalism" in 13 steps based on productivity, fairness, accessibility and sustainability among other "values" and assured winning the upcoming vote would "embolden us to elevate our country."

He lashed out at "a group waiting with bated breath for Türkiye to stumble and return to its weak old days" and said "the real target" was Türkiye.

"We will let their insidious intentions down," he said, stressing that his promise was made "not to opposition parties we compete with but directly to our people."

In the aftermath of last May’s general elections, which Erdoğan and his ruling People’s Alliance won against a six-party opposition bloc, municipal elections on March 31 look set to be a test of popular support for all competing sides.

Earlier this month, Erdoğan announced former Environment, Urban Planning and Climate Change Minister Murat Kurum for Istanbul, who is challenging the CHP’s popular Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu. Winning the districts is also important for the party as it seeks an integrated approach to the city's administration.

Erdoğan’s party is relying on Turgut Altınok against incumbent Mayor Mansur Yavaş of the CHP to win back the capital to crown what the president has been touting as the "Century of Türkiye" vision, which encapsulates an ambitious set of political, economic, social and cultural innovations and developments his government aims to accomplish to celebrate Türkiye’s centenary as a republic.

‘Century of Türkiye cities’

The AK Party has titled its election declaration "True Municipalism for 'Century of Türkiye' cities" at the heart of which lies the promise of true municipalism, Erdoğan told his members.

He denounced "complaints of facing obstruction" from opposition mayors that governed Türkiye’s most populous cities for the past five years, arguing there was "no excuse for failing to serve the people."

"Everyone benefits from public funds fairly," Erdoğan said. "Whatever AK Party municipalities receive, they receive the same amount, in fact, much much more."

He also lamented a surge in the public debt accrued in the Istanbul municipality (IBB) during Imamoğlu’s tenure, namely from the $1.5 billion AK Party handed the city to the mayor, to the $3 billion of today.

Dismissing opposition politicians for clinging onto a "mentality that wants to revive old Türkiye’s diseases," Erdoğan vowed: "They will remove their shadows from our cities."

13 steps to service

"We’re building our promise on 13 primary steps that constitute the essence of our vision," Erdoğan said. "Productive, fair, accessible, visionary, compassionate, sustainable, innovation, progressive, modern, strong, inclusive, dynamic and patriotic municipalism."

The AK Party is promising to build disaster-resistant settlements and prepare cities against climate change while implementing infrastructure compatible with digital technologies and projects that will protect culture and bolster local administrations, according to Erdoğan.

"We will build clean cities for our children, with aesthetic architecture and preserved historical artifacts," he said, listing nature-sensitive structures, and zero waste municipalities that will provide "social municipalism to all societal groups."

If victorious on March 31, AK Party mayors will encourage people to stay in their hometowns and "make daily life easier with modern, dynamic and clever projects."

"With these goals, we will build 'Century of Türkiye' cities brick by brick," Erdoğan assured.

"The AK Party is no longer placing major projects in its election campaigns because every project Türkiye has is a major project.

"Türkiye is preparing for the new administrative and economic order of the world because we know our country is responsible for not only saving the day but also building its future."

Mayoral race

The propaganda period starts in February as 36 eligible parties announce their candidates one by one.

Owing to the traditional lore around it, the mayoral vote is the flashiest of them all and Istanbul is considered, politically, the most important administrative region in the country.

While Imamoğlu is yet to make an official declaration, Kurum’s campaign is largely centered around alleviating Istanbul’s notorious traffic congestions, public transport delays and malfunctions that became a major source of discontent among residents, and providing safe housing in 39 districts of Istanbul, which largely sits on a fault line.

Imamoğlu, who is facing a political ban in an ongoing lawsuit, has lost some of his luster since the opposition’s joint support put him in the mayoral office in 2019. He mounted a coup at CHP last summer to replace Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu with his favored man, Özgür Özel.

But internal feuds have since caused a rift at Türkiye’s oldest party, including quarrels between the mayor and the chair on the candidate selection process.

The CHP’s odds are rapidly dwindling as former allies, the nationalist Good Party (IP) and PKK-affiliated Green Left Party (YSP), informally known as the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) and previously going by HDP, are both fielding their own mayoral candidates after rejecting Özel’s offer of forming another alliance.