The very big surprise of the local elections held in Turkey last Sunday was the fact that there was no surprise at all at a time when most of the people in Turkey and abroad expected a huge surprise.

The ruling AK Party performed well above the expectations of its opponents, scoring a very comfortable 46 percent margin nationwide, while keeping and even consolidating its hold on major cities.

The main opposition party, the Republican People's Party (CHP), performed much better than in previous elections, in fact attaining its best margins since the 1989 elections. The expectations of its supporters, however, were so high that the score, a respectable 28 percent, looked meager.

The CHP basically failed to conquer any major city, but secured its position in its strongholds and gained minor local municipalities in Istanbul. The challenge was the office of mayor of Ankara, where the incumbent, AK Party candidate Melih Gökçek, was competing for a fifth term. He almost lost to Mansur Yavaş, the CHP candidate and a former member of the rightwing Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).

The MHP, the third political force in Turkey with almost 15 percent, consolidated its position as a conservative and nationalist movement by gaining some cities.

The Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), a Kurdish political movement, performed as expected, receiving high percentages in the southeastern provinces of Turkey where it won almost all the big cities. Its sister organization, People's Democracy Party (HDP), was organized only in the Western provinces of Turkey and took about 6 percent of the vote, their traditional ceiling.

The fact is that these elections caused disappointment among opposition parties as a whole but mainly among the CHP, means it will be difficult to continue with political life as if nothing happened. Its campaign was imbued with a very violent tone, almost unheard of in Turkey. In the aftermath of the elections, this sentiment remains strong, with AK Party voters described as "uneducated and non-intelligent."

Such societal divides leave notable and deep scars. Turkey will hold presidential elections soon and it is more than likely that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will want to capitalize on the excellent performance of his party and call for early parliamentary elections.

Turkish society can hardly sustain such a tense and unhealthy atmosphere that will very likely be aggravated by investigations regarding the parallel organization within the state apparatus. That organization showed its extremely hurtful and dangerous side by tapping and leaking to social media a highly secret conversation that took place within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The rivalry between the AK Party and the Gülen Movement turned in a matter of years into a struggle for existence where the rule of law and national security became expendable for the Gülen Movement.

Turkey needs serendipity, to say the least. Despite overwhelming support from the voters, Erdoğan may need a wider consensus in order to calm the spirits and allow the Turkish economy to pursue stable growth as it has been the case for the last 17 quarters.