© Provided by Agencia EFE
Nicosia, Jan 22 (EFE) .- The self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), is holding early legislative elections this Sunday, amid the coronavirus pandemic and the effects of Turkey’s financial crisis, on which it depends. directly.
Around 200,000 registered citizens will have the possibility to choose among the 403 candidates integrated in the lists of 8 political parties and three independents that look to obtain one of the 50 seats in the Turkish Cypriot hemicycle.
The government that emerges from these elections will only be recognized by Ankara, so its relevance at the international level is secondary, except that it can reinforce the role of the TRNC president if it is of the same color. The president, currently Ersin Tatar, is the only interlocutor of the United Nations and the leader of the Turkish Cypriots in the negotiations on the future of the divided island.
Tomorrow’s election date was called last November following the resignation of the nationalist right-wing coalition government made up of the National Unity Party (UBP), the Democratic Party (DP) and the Renaissance Party (YDP).
LITTLE ENTHUSIASM AMONG TURKISH CYPRIOT ELECTORS
Compared to previous elections, there is little enthusiasm among voters for an election that can change little their daily lives and the serious problems they have faced in recent months to access basic products.
In addition, recent fluctuations in the Turkish lira – adopted by this territory in 1976, two years following the Turkish invasion – have had a devastating effect on the daily lives of Turkish Cypriots.
In this context, the covid limited the electoral campaign and the parties resorted mainly to social networks and television to present their positions.
According to recent polls, 24.7% said they would not go to the polls, while 8.6% declared themselves undecided, and the polls point to a collapse of the main parties.
The main issues of the political confrontation focused on the economic situation, the peace dialogue between the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities, and the coronavirus.
POLLS GIVE VICTORY TO THE NATIONALISTS
Despite the fact that experts agree that no poll is trustworthy, everything indicates that the nationalist UBP will be the most voted party, as was the case in the 2018 elections, when it obtained 35.6%.
Although he starts as the favourite, most polls show that the UBP, the voice of Ankara in this territory and the current government party, would only achieve around 24%.
Since 1975, the UBP, led until last year by the current president of the TRNC, the nationalist Ersin Tatar, follows the line of its founder, Rauf Denktash, who is committed to the division of the island of Cyprus into two states.
On the other hand, according to the polls, the main opposition party, the Turkish Republican Party (CTP) of a social democratic and pro-European nature – in favor of a bi-communal and bi-zonal federal solution in Cyprus – and winner of the 2013 elections, would be around 16%. , following touching 21% in 2018.
The Renaissance Party (YDP) would get 4.5%, followed by the Democratic Party (DP) with 2.3%.
Like the TRNC presidential elections, the Turkish Cypriot parliamentary elections are held every five years, since the first in 1976, two years following Turkey invaded the northern part of Cyprus that it still maintains militarily occupied.
The TRNC is a de facto state, product of the occupation of the north of the island and self-proclaimed independent in 1983.
Legally, the entire territory of the island is a member of the European Union, but the application of the acquis communautaire in the north is on hold until the conflict between the two communities that has persisted since the Turkish invasion of 1974 is not resolved.
(c) EFE Agency
