Hardliners win Turkish Cypriot elections

THE TWO leading Turkish Cypriot parties retained their strong position in Sunday’s ‘parliamentary’ elections in the north.

The National Unity Party headed by Turkish Cypriot ‘Prime Minister’ Dervis Eroglu garnered 40.33 per cent of the vote, just short of an absolute majority, with 24 seats in the 50-seat ‘Assembly’.

Eroglu had governed in coalition with the party of Serdar Denktash, son of the Turkish Cypriot leader, though the parties fought separate campaigns for Sunday’s poll. It was not clear yesterday whether Eroglu would again need coalition support to form a new ‘government’.

Serdar Denktash’s Democratic Party took 22.61 per cent of the vote, with 13 seats.

The remainder of the seats were divided between the Communal Liberation Party of Mustafa Akinci, which took seven seats or 15.36 per cent of the vote, and the Republican Turkish Party of Mehmet Ali Talat which took 13.5 per cent, or six seats.

Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash said on Sunday that the polls should be seen as a sign of the ‘sovereignty’ of his breakaway state.

“I hope the world will look at this election and realise that separate elections are not a fabrication,” he told reporters after casting his vote in occupied Nicosia.

Pre-election polls had suggested the results might provide a challenge to Denktash’s refusal to return to the negotiating table. The two smaller parties support the resumption of direct talks.

Turnout for Sunday’s elections was estimated at 85 per cent of some 120,000 registered voters. The final make up of the new ‘parliament’ is expected to become clear this week.

“We had very good elections with no unpleasant events,” Denktash said. “The world now has to open its eyes and realise our existence. The world has to understand that the Turkish Cypriots have the right to hold separate general elections.”

He said the Turkish Cypriots had given a good lesson in democracy.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.