Once again, Turkey is bracing itself for an extremely tense and contentious atmosphere of political debate as we approach what is undoubtedly the most critical municipal election in recent years.

While no big surprises are expected from the local elections, the perception of success or failure of the ruling party will have an impact on its calculations with respect to the presidential election and the parliamentary election in 2015.

The opposition parties neither signal a structural and managerial change in their parties nor offer a different vision for the future in the event they lose the March 30 elections.

One of the reasons why political jargon is framed as if it were a general election is because of the Dec. 17 operation that caused local elections to be pushed out of its normal process.

The Dec. 17 operation transformed the local elections into a vote of confidence for the AK Party government. March 30 is no longer about municipalities and town councils but Mr. Erdoğan's political future

After the Dec. 17 operation, the local elections that are supposed to take place on March 30 have come to mean much more than local elections.

On Dec. 17, 2013, an operation in which a group of irrelevant files of investigations and names were merged was carried out with the joint efforts of prosecutors and the police.

Corruption cases have a devastating impact on political parties. Turkey was recently hit by a corruption probe that shook the country's government. On December 17, 2013, Turkish police detained over 50 people as part of an investigation into alleged corruption.

There had also been numerous corruption investigations into municipalities – governed both by the AK Party and other political parties. Why didn’t those investigations attract as much attention as the Dec. 17 investigation?

As Turkey has become the scene of a corruption case on December 17, 2013, no one anticipated what the relevant investigation may lead to.