Talat tipped for landslide win

MEHMET Ali Talat, winner of last February’s general election in the north, looks set to win the race for the ‘presidency’ on April 17 with an even greater majority, according to an opinion poll published in Kibris yesterday.

The election sees current ‘president’ Rauf Denktash stepping out of politics after over four decades as leader of the Turkish Cypriot community.

Talat is seen as a staunch campaigner for reunification and is credited with engineering overwhelming Turkish Cypriot support for the Annan plan in last April’s referendum.
Carried out by the Social Research and Education Advisory Centre (KADEM), yesterday’s poll predicted that Talat would be backed by just under 55 per cent in the first round of voting, meaning there would be no need for a second round runoff. Second place would go to the conservative National Unity Party’s (UBP) Dervish Eroglu, tipped to get just under 27 per cent, while Democrat Party (DP) candidate Mustafa Arabacioglu, comes third at almost nine per cent.

KADEM say the poll was carried out between March 23 and 27, asking 1,472 people living in the north which of the nine candidates they would be voting for. It also asked respondents how they voted in last February’s general election, revealing that the overwhelming majority of UBP and CTP voters would be backing candidates from the parties they supported previously. However, around 55 per cent of those who voted for Mustafa Akinci’s pro-solution Peace and Development Movement in February said they would back Talat this time round. Akinci himself is not standing, leaving the field relatively clear of left-wing, pro-solution opposition to Talat. Surprisingly, Talat is also set to receive support from 22 per cent of DP voters, despite the party fielding its own candidate, and, perhaps even more surprising, support from nearly five per cent of voters who backed the UBP at the last election.

The opinion poll also showed the greatest support for Talat comes from the young, with support falling away steadily with as voters get older. The situation for Eroglu is exactly the opposite.

Regionally, Talat is most popular in Nicosia, gaining 60 per cent there. He is least popular in the Karpas area.

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