Constitution |
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Elections in Northern Cyprus are organized to elect governments, presidents and representatives of local administrative bodies in Northern Cyprus, known as the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
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, 2005, 2010, 2015, 2020, and with the next election scheduled for 2025. 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, İskele and Lefke.
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]
Candidate | Party | First round | Second round | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Votes | % | Votes | % | |||
Ersin Tatar | National Unity Party | 35,825 | 32.35 | 67,322 | 51.69 | |
Mustafa Akıncı | Independent | 33,053 | 29.84 | 62,910 | 48.31 | |
Tufan Erhürman | Republican Turkish Party | 24,008 | 21.68 | |||
Kudret Özersay | Independent | 6,356 | 5.74 | |||
Erhan Arıklı | Rebirth Party | 5,937 | 5.36 | |||
Serdar Denktaş | Independent | 4,653 | 4.20 | |||
Fuat Türköz Çiner | Nationalist Democracy Party | 327 | 0.30 | |||
Arif Salih Kırdağ | Independent | 282 | 0.25 | |||
Alpan Uz | Independent | 156 | 0.14 | |||
Ahmet Boran | Independent | 83 | 0.07 | |||
Mustafa Ulaş | Independent | 69 | 0.06 | |||
Total | 110,749 | 100.00 | 130,232 | 100.00 | ||
Valid votes | 110,749 | 95.66 | 130,232 | 97.24 | ||
Invalid/blank votes | 5,027 | 4.34 | 3,699 | 2.76 | ||
Total votes | 115,776 | 100.00 | 133,931 | 100.00 | ||
Registered voters/turnout | 198,867 | 58.22 | 199,029 | 67.29 | ||
Source: Kibris Online, Kibris Online |
Party | Votes | % | +/– | Seats | +/– | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
National Unity Party | 1,971,400 | 39.54 | +3.93 | 24 | +3 | |
Republican Turkish Party | 1,597,137 | 32.04 | +11.09 | 18 | +6 | |
Democratic Party | 369,239 | 7.41 | –0.41 | 3 | 0 | |
People's Party | 333,090 | 6.68 | –10.39 | 3 | –6 | |
Rebirth Party | 318,763 | 6.39 | –0.60 | 2 | 0 | |
Communal Democracy Party | 220,610 | 4.42 | –4.23 | 0 | –3 | |
Independence Path | 97,575 | 1.96 | New | 0 | New | |
Communal Liberation Party New Forces | 76,902 | 1.54 | – | 0 | 0 | |
Independents | 827 | 0.02 | –0.11 | 0 | 0 | |
Total | 4,985,543 | 100.00 | – | 50 | 0 | |
Total votes | 117,421 | – | ||||
Registered voters/turnout | 203,792 | 57.62 | ||||
Source: BRTK |
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. |
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]
The electoral threshold, or election threshold, is the minimum share of votes that a candidate or political party requires before they become entitled to representation or additional seats in a legislature.
Mehmet Ali Talat is a Turkish Cypriot politician who served as the president of Northern Cyprus from 2005 to 2010. Talat was the leader of the social democratic Republican Turkish Party, from 1996 to 2005 and 2015 to 2016. He became prime minister in 2004, and subsequently won the presidential election held on 17 April 2005. Talat was inaugurated on 25 April 2005, succeeding retiring leader Rauf Denktaş. He lost the presidential election of 2010 and was replaced by Derviş Eroğlu as President.
Open list describes any variant of party-list proportional representation where voters have at least some influence on the order in which a party's candidates are elected. This is as opposed to closed list, in which party lists are in a predetermined, fixed order by the time of the election and gives the general voter no influence at all on the position of the candidates placed on the party list.
The Republican Turkish Party is a social-democratic political party in Northern Cyprus. The party was founded in 1970 by Ahmet Mithat Berberoğlu, a lawyer, in opposition to the leadership of Fazıl Küçük and Rauf Denktaş.
At the national level, the Republic of Cyprus holds elections for its head of state, the President of Cyprus, and for its legislature, the House of Representatives.
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Early parliamentary elections were held in Northern Cyprus on 20 February 2005, after the coalition government led by Mehmet Ali Talat lost its majority in the House of Representatives. The vote was a resounding victory for Mehmet Ali Talat's CTP-United Forces alliance, although it fell just short of a majority. The UBP, Democratic Party and BDH also crossed the 5% election threshold and won seats in the House.
Presidential elections were held in Northern Cyprus on Sunday 17 April 2005. They followed parliamentary elections on 20 February, which had been won by the pro-unification Republican Turkish Party (CTP).
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The Politics of Northern Cyprus takes place in a framework of a semi-presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the president is head of state and the prime minister is the head of government, and of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Assembly of the Republic. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
The Assembly of the Republic is the parliament of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. It has 50 members, elected for a five-year term by mitigated proportional representation. A party must cross the electoral threshold to be awarded any seats. The parliament is composed of 50 MPs, chosen from six electoral districts, which are coterminous with the districts of Northern Cyprus: Lefkoşa, Gazimağusa, Girne, Güzelyurt, Lefke and İskele.
The president of Northern Cyprus is the head of state of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Rauf Denktaş was the first and founding president of Northern Cyprus, and retired in 2005. His position was taken over by Mehmet Ali Talat, followed by Derviş Eroğlu, then Mustafa Akıncı, and the current president, Ersin Tatar.
Parliamentary elections were held in Northern Cyprus on 15 December 2003. Having come fourth in the 1998 elections, the Republican Turkish Party emerged as the largest party in the Assembly of the Republic, winning 19 of the 50 seats.
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Parliamentary elections were held in Northern Cyprus on 6 December 1998. The National Unity Party emerged as the largest party in the Assembly of the Republic, winning 24 of the 50 seats.
Parliamentary elections were held in Northern Cyprus on 28 July 2013, a year earlier than necessary. The Republican Turkish Party emerged as the largest in the Assembly of the Republic, winning 21 of the 50 seats.
Parliamentary elections were held in Cyprus on 22 May 2016 to elect 56 of the 80 Members of the House of Representatives.
Parliamentary elections were held in Northern Cyprus on 7 January 2018 to elect the 50 members of the Assembly of the Republic for a five-year term. Going into the elections, the government was led by Prime Minister Hüseyin Özgürgün, who had served since 16 April 2016, leading a coalition consisting of the National Unity Party and the Democratic Party.
Snap parliamentary elections were held in Northern Cyprus on 23 January 2022. Going into the election, the government was led by Prime Minister Faiz Sucuoğlu of the National Unity Party (UBP). The Sucuoğlu cabinet, was formed in November 2021 and was a minority coalition government of the National Unity Party (UBP) and the Democratic Party (DP). It functioned as a caretaker government until the snap election.