Voters in breakaway northern Cyprus went to early polls yesterday to try to elect a new Turkish Cypriot government aimed at breaking a political impasse sparked by the failure last year of a UN plan to reunify the island.
The isolated Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) has been deadlocked since last May when the ruling pro-settlement coalition lost its slim parliamentary majority, shortly after the UN scheme was rejected in an April 24 referendum, and finally resigned.
Some 148,000 voters will elect 50 parliament members from seven parties in the polls, which are expected to be a close race between the senior ruling party of prime minister Mehmet Ali Talat and the nationalist main opposition.
Opinion polls predict the elections will not bring any one party to power but produce the same fragmented result as the last polls in December 2003, fanning fears of uncertainty in the self-proclaimed state recognized only by Ankara.
"Stamp for democracy," trumpeted the statelet's major newspaper Kibris.
"The decision is yours," said another daily, Halkin Sesi.
But with no hope of a breakthrough on the political scene, the polls have generated little excitement among the electorate with most parties attracting only minimal crowds at rallies.
Opinion polls have tipped Talat's center-left Republican Turkish Party (CTP) to emerge as the largest single party, but not with enough seats to set up a government on its own.
The party, which won the last elections after fiercely advocating the failed UN plan, has argued that a victory would help it push for a revival of peace talks and allow the isolated Turkish Cypriots to integrate with the international community.
His main contender in the race is the nationalist National Unity Party (UBP) of former prime minister Dervis Eroglu, who is a fierce opponent of reunification with the Greek Cypriots on the basis of the failed UN plan.
They have been campaigning heavily against the CTP, accusing it of failing to keep its promises of a settlement and eventual EU membership.
Two other parties -- the Democrat Party and the Peace and Democracy Movement -- are expected to garner enough votes to win parliamentary seats. The remaining three are not likely to overcome the 5 percent threshold to enter parliament.
Political commentators say the result of the vote is unlikely to change the stalemate in efforts to end the island's 30-year-long division. The peace process has been stalled since the majority of Greek Cypriots in southern Cyprus voted in a referendum against the UN reunification plan while the breakaway Turkish Cypriots rallied behind it.
As a result, only the internationally recognized Greek Cypriot south of the island joined the EU on May 1.
Observers believe any viable effort to jumpstart peace talks will have to wait until after presidential elections in April when hardline Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash is to stand down.
‘THEY KILLED HOPE’: Four presidential candidates were killed in the 1980s and 1990s, and Miguel Uribe’s mother died during a police raid to free her from Pablo Escobar Colombian presidential candidate Miguel Uribe has died two months after being shot at a campaign rally, his family said on Monday, as the attack rekindled fears of a return to the nation’s violent past. The 39-year-old conservative senator, a grandson of former Colombian president Julio Cesar Turbay (1978-1982), was shot in the head and leg on June 7 at a rally in the capital, Bogota, by a suspected 15-year-old hitman. Despite signs of progress in the past few weeks, his doctors on Saturday announced he had a new brain hemorrhage. “To break up a family is the most horrific act of violence that
HISTORIC: After the arrest of Kim Keon-hee on financial and political funding charges, the country has for the first time a former president and former first lady behind bars South Korean prosecutors yesterday raided the headquarters of the former party of jailed former South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol to gather evidence in an election meddling case against his wife, a day after she was arrested on corruption and other charges. Former first lady Kim Keon-hee was arrested late on Tuesday on a range of charges including stock manipulation and corruption, prosecutors said. Her arrest came hours after the Seoul Central District Court reviewed prosecutors’ request for an arrest warrant against the 52-year-old. The court granted the warrant, citing the risk of tampering with evidence, after prosecutors submitted an 848-page opinion laying out
North Korean troops have started removing propaganda loudspeakers used to blare unsettling noises along the border, South Korea’s military said on Saturday, days after Seoul’s new administration dismantled ones on its side of the frontier. The two countries had already halted propaganda broadcasts along the demilitarized zone, Seoul’s military said in June after the election of South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, who is seeking to ease tensions with Pyongyang. The South Korean Ministry of National Defense on Monday last week said it had begun removing loudspeakers from its side of the border as “a practical measure aimed at helping ease
DEADLY TASTE TEST: Erin Patterson tried to kill her estranged husband three times, police said in one of the major claims not heard during her initial trial Australia’s recently convicted mushroom murderer also tried to poison her husband with bolognese pasta and chicken korma curry, according to testimony aired yesterday after a suppression order lapsed. Home cook Erin Patterson was found guilty last month of murdering her husband’s parents and elderly aunt in 2023, lacing their beef Wellington lunch with lethal death cap mushrooms. A series of potentially damning allegations about Patterson’s behavior in the lead-up to the meal were withheld from the jury to give the mother-of-two a fair trial. Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale yesterday rejected an application to keep these allegations secret. Patterson tried to kill her
RSS