Elections in Northern Cyprus

Elections in Northern Cyprus, are organized to elect governments, presidents and representatives of local administrative bodies in Northern Cyprus, de facto known as the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

Electoral system

The presidency, which is served in five-year terms, was instituted with TRNC's first presidential election in 1985 and continued with the elections of 1990, 1995, 2000 and 2005,2010 with the next election scheduled for April 2015. The legislature, Cumhuriyet Meclisi (Assembly of the Republic of Northern Cyprus), has 50 members, elected for a five-year term by mitigated proportional representation. The territory has a multi-party system, with two or three strong parties and another party which is also electorally successful.

In the presidential election, a candidate must obtain at least 50% of the votes in order to secure a first-ballot victory. Upon failing to do so, the two top candidates compete in a runoff election, with the winner assuming the presidency.

The mitigated proportional representation system in use for legislative elections obligates each party to cross the 5% of the total vote election threshold in order to be seated in the 50-member parliament, which is chosen from five districts: Lefkoşa, Gazimağusa, Girne, Güzelyurt and İskele.

In the parliamentary elections, voters choose individual candidates with two options in the manner of voting: a party-line vote which, in effect, means a vote for each candidate from that party in that election district or, alternatively, the voter may choose different MP candidates from various parties. In this type of mixed voting, the voter may not choose more than the number of MPs from that district.

Residents of Northern Cyprus are eligible to stand for election and vote in the national elections of the Republic of Cyprus, but not able to run for presidency^[1] (the Constitution states that a Turkish-Cypriot should be Vice-President of the Republic). Turkish Cypriot communal representation in the Republic of Cyprus government de facto ended in 1963. Until 2004, the case of Ibrahim Aziz in the European Court of Human Rights, Turkish Cypriots could not vote in the Republic of Cyprus.^[2][3]

Latest elections

2010 Presidential election

 Summary of the 18 April 2010 Northern Cyprus presidential election

Candidate	Party	Votes	%
Derviş Eroğlu	National Unity Party (UBP)	61,491	50.38
Mehmet Ali Talat	Independent	52,302	42.85
Tahsin Ertuğruloğlu	Independent	4,648	3.81
Zeki Beşiktepeli	Independent	1,986	1.61
Mustafa Kemal Tümkan	Independent	964	0.79
Arif Salih Kırdağ	Independent	521	0.43
Ayhan Kaymak	Independent	168	0.14
Total (turnout 76.37%)		125,294	100
Source: mahkemeler.net (XLS-file)

2013 Parliamentary election

Party	Votes	%	Seats	+/–
Republican Turkish Party	477,209	38.38	21	+6
National Unity Party	339,864	27.33	14	–12
Democratic Party	288,021	23.16	12	+7
Communal Democracy Party	92,110	7.41	3	+1
United Cyprus Party	39,127	3.15	0	0
Independents	7,110	0.57	0	0
Total	1,243,441	100	50	0
Valid votes
Invalid/blank votes
Total votes cast	120,287	100
Registered voters/turnout	172,803	69.61
Sources: Adam Carr

Past elections

Presidential elections

Date:	Candidates:	Party Affiliation:	% Vote:	Notes:
15 April 2000	Mustafa Akıncı Mehmet A. Talat Arif Hasan T. Desem Derviş Eroğlu Ayhan Kaymak Rauf R. Denktas Sener Levent Turgut Afsaroglu	TKP CTP YBH UBP Independent Independent Independent Independent	%11.70 %10.03 %2.60 %30.14 %0.38 %43.67 %0.92 %0.56	1- Number of registered voters: 126675 2-Participation Rate: %81.02 3-Derviş Eroğlu and Rauf R. Denktas was to run for the second round, but Derviş Eroğlu had forfeited so the second round did not take place
15 Feb 1995				1- 1st round of 1995presidential elections.
22 April 1995				1- 2nd round of 1995 presidential elections.
22 April 1990				1- 1st round of 1990 presidential elections.
9 June 1985				1- 1st round of 1985 presidential elections.
28 June 1981				1- 1st round of 1981 presidential elections.

Parliamentary elections

Date:	Parties:	% Votes:	Seats:	+/-	Notes:
20 Feb 2005	CTP - Cumhuriyetçi Turk Partisi UBP - Ulusal Birlik Partisi DP - Demokrat Parti BDH - Baris ve Demokrasi Hareketi TKP - Toplumcu Kurtuluş Partisi YP - New Party MAP - Milli Adalet Partisi	%44.5 %31.7 %13.5 %5.8 %2.4 %1.6 %0.5	24 19 6 1 - - -	+5 +1 -1 -5 - - -	1- (+/-) - Difference in seats from 2003 election.
14 Dec 2003	CTP - Cumhuriyetçi Turk Partisi UBP - Ulusal Birlik Partisi BDH - Baris ve Demokrasi Hareketi DP - Demokrat Parti	% 35.18 % 32.93 % 13.14% %12.93	19 18 6 7		1- TKP entered the elections under the list of BDH.
6 Dec 1998	UBP - Ulusal Birlik Partisi DP - Demokrat Parti TKP - Toplumcu Kurtuluş Partisi CTP - Cumhuriyetçi Turk Partisi Others	%40.4 %22.6 %15.4 %13.4 % 8.2	24 13 7 6 -		1- Others includes UDP, BP, YBH
12 Dec 1993	UBP - Ulusal Birlik Partisi DP - Demokrat Parti CTP - Cumhuriyetçi Turk Partisi TKP - Toplumcu Kurtuluş Partisi Others (YKP, MMP, BEP)	%29.8 %29.2 %24.2 %13.3 % 3.5	17 15 13 5 -		1-Early General Elections 2- Others include YKP, MMP, BEP
13 Oct 1991	UBP - Ulusal Birlik Partisi Free Democratic Party (HDP) Others (YKP)	%67.1 %13.9 %19	11 1 -		1- Interim elections done to fill the seats of 12 MPs who had resigned. 2- CTP and TKP boycotted the election. 3-Others include SDP, MAP, BEP, YDP
6 May 1990	UBP - Ulusal Birlik Partisi Democratic Struggle Party (DMP) Others (YKP)	%54.7 %44.5 %0.8	34 16 -		1- DMP is an election alliance party for CTP, TKP, YDP.
23 Jun 1985	UBP - Ulusal Birlik Partisi CTP - Cumhuriyetçi Turk Partisi TKP - Toplumcu Kurtuluş Partisi YDP - Yeni Dogus Partisi (YDP) Others	%36.7 %21.4 %15.8 %8.8 %17.3	24 12 10 4 -		Others include TAP, SDP, DHP

In 2009 President Mehmet Ali Talat claimed that in 1990 and 1998 Turkish government officials along with other influential powers from Turkey interfered with the Parliamentary Elections.^[4]

References

1. Nicos Trimikliniotis, Corina Demetriou. Evaluating the Anti-Discrimination Law in the Republic of Cyprus: A Critical Reflection (Peace Research Institute) Retrieved 2010-05-07.
2. Aziz v. Cyprus, European Court of Human Rights, Netherlands Institute of Human Rights, Retrieved 2011-05-17.
3. Turkish Cypriots - Parliamentary Elections, Cyprus News Agency, Retrieved 2011-05-17.
4. "Talat: 1990, 1998 KKTC elections were interfered with". Today's Zaman. 18 April 2009.