The writs have yet to drop and yet, with new potential candidates cropping up every week now, it can feel as though the campaign is well underway.

For those wondering what the coming weeks and months in the 2016 territorial race might look like, here’s some of what to expect when you’re expecting an election.

When will the election be held?

That decision is normally made by the premier, and he has yet to call it.

In the Yukon, a legislative assembly (all the MLAs including the premier) can last for a maximum of five years, starting the day the election results are officially confirmed.

Last time around, the official ballot count was in on Oct. 17, 2011. This means that the current legislative assembly will automatically dissolve on Oct. 17, 2016.

Indeed, since the beginning of party politics in the Yukon in 1978, no legislative assembly has hit its five-year limit.

Typically, the premier calls for an election before the automatic dissolution date.

The last day the premier can ask the commissioner to dissolve the assembly, and for the commissioner to ask the chief electoral officer to order an election (this is procedure and all these steps happen in rapid succession), is Oct. 14.

Of course, government still exists during an election period.

“We carry on the business of government but there’s typically no new decisions being made or political direction being made,” said Sarah Crane, director of communications at the Executive Council Office.

She noted that public announcements, events and speeches by government officials are limited during the campaign.

How long can a campaign last?

As many will recall, the last federal election campaign dragged on for 78 days and was the longest in Canadian history since 1872.

While there is no maximum length for a campaign in the Yukon, one as drawn out as the federal race was is unlikely to happen here.

Usually territorial campaigns in the Yukon run for 31 days (which is the minimum length, according to the Elections Act), said Floyd McCormick, clerk of the legislative assembly.

I want to be an MLA; how do I become a candidate?

That depends on what party you want to run for, because each one has different requirements.

The Yukon Party has local branches called electoral district associations that, together with a territory-wide Yukon Party committee, picks the possible candidates for each riding, said party president Linda Hillier.

If you want to be a contender, you have to be a Yukon Party member, and you have to fill out an application form.

The form asks questions like: What are your top three priorities for the territory? How long have you been a Yukon Party member? What kind of volunteer experience do you have?

You must also get 10 Yukon Party members to endorse your candidacy, and sometimes, said Hillier, there will be an oral interview too.

You are also required to submit a criminal background check and credit check if the Yukon Party asks for them.

To seek a Liberal nomination, first you must become a member of the Yukon Liberals, said Laura Cabott, campaign chair of the Yukon Liberal Party.

Then, you have to complete a 16-page declaration and undergo a criminal background check and a credit check. You must also be approved by the Liberal nomination committee, she said.

To run for the NDP, you have to be a member and must also fill out a document that says a who you are and why you want to run, said Dan Bader, president of the Yukon NDP.

The NDP doesn’t ask for a criminal background check nor a credit check.

If you choose to contest the nomination for a party in a particular riding, there will be a nomination meeting, and party members who live in that riding will vote for the candidate they want.

The date of the nomination meeting is decided by the party.

In Darrell Pasloski’s riding of Mountainview, for example, Skeeter Wright and Shaunagh Steikman are vying to be the NDP candidate and the one to potentially defeat the premier.

Here, the NDP riding association (the local NDP branch) will hold a meeting. Any registered New Democrat who lives in Mountainview will vote for either Wright or Steikman.

When is the deadline to enter the race as a potential candidate?

That too, depends what party and riding you’re eyeing. Several spots have already been filled.

Scott Kent, for example, is the Yukon Party candidate in Copperbelt South; that’s decided. Jeane Lassen is the Liberal candidate in Takhini-Kopper King, so no one else can run as a Liberal in that riding.

But it’s still possible to seek and/or contest the nomination for one of the three major parties in a number of ridings across the territory.

For instance, no one has yet come forward to challenge Sandy Silver for the Klondike seat.

Pelly-Nisutlin, the riding currently held by Stacey Hassard of the Yukon Party, hasn’t had anyone from a major party announce a bid to run in that riding either. (Elvis Presley is running there as an independent).

If you’re not tied to a major party and wish instead to run as independent, you have until 2 p.m. on Day 10 of the election campaign to file nomination papers with the returning officer, said chief electoral officer Lori McKee.

How much money can I donate to a candidate or party?

As much as you want!

This question was hotly debated in the last sitting of the legislative assembly.

The Yukon NDP introduced a bill, the Fairness in Political Contributions Act, which, if passed, would ban corporate, union and Outside donations to political parties and cap individual donations at $1,500.

Back in April, NDP Leader Liz Hanson defended her proposal to change the territorial Elections Act, saying: “Not only do these Outside, corporate and union contributions distort the democratic process, they also create the perception that government decisions can be influenced through unofficial channels.”

The Yukon Party cast doubt on the timing of the bill, which was tabled during the last sitting before an election, and asked why the NDP didn’t raise the issue when the Yukon’s Elections Act was amended in 2015.

“There have been multiple opportunities for the NDP to bring forward this type of proposal over the past two years, including when the Elections Act was amended four months ago,” Yukon Party MLA Darius Elias said in April.

“That the NDP has waited until an election year to bring this proposal forward is telling.”

The legislative assembly voted to send the bill to an all-party committee for further review.

Late last month, the Members’ Services Board confirmed it was dropping the matter due, in part, to technical errors in the proposed legislation, said Currie Dixon, who sits on the Members’ Services Board.

“The committee agreed to give direction to the chief electoral officer to do a jurisdictional review, and, based on that, give recommendations on how to cap or limit corporate and union donations and how to deal with third party spending,” Dixon told the Star last week.

(There was no chance of the bill coming into effect before this election anyway, as the MLAs would have had to vote on it, and the last sitting of this legislative assembly wrapped up in May.)

For their part, the New Democrats said they will continue to push for reforms to the political contributions system after the election.