On Sunday, local elections were held in the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus.

In April 2010, Derviş Eroğlu of the National Unity Party (Ulusal Birlik Partisi) – UBP) party was elected president. The UBP already had a parliamentary majority too.

At the local elections, the UBP has again emerged as the main winner. The TRNC media website is reporting that the UBP has won 12 of the 28 municipalities. The opposition Republican Turkish Party (Cumhuriyetçi Türk Partisi – CTP) won 8 municipalities and the Democratic Party (Demokrat Parti – DP) won five. Independents won the remaining three. Turnout was 79.5% of the 164,486 registered voters.

The vote share is not yet available, but the results confirm the general shift to the nationalist UBP party.

Yesterday the presidential election was held in the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus. The constitution is available here.

The two main candidates were the incumbent president, Mehmet Ali Talat of the CTP party, and incumbent prime minister, Derviş Eroğlu of the UBP party.

CTP = Republican Turkish Party (Cumhuriyetçi Türk Partisi)
UBP = National Unity Party (Ulusal Birlik Partisi)

The official media network has announced the following result:

Derviş Eroğlu (UBP), 50.38%
Mehmet Ali Talat (CTP – independent), 42.85%
Tahsin Ertuğruloğlu (independent), 3.81%
Zeki Beşiktepeli (independent), 1.61%
Mustafa Kemal Tümkan (independent), 0.79%
Arif Salih Kirdag (independent), 0.43%
Ayhan Kaymak (independent), 0.14%

Given Derviş Eroğlu has won more than 50% of the vote, he is elected.

This result will end a period of cohabitation as the UBP party has 26 seats in the 50-seat parliament. The UBP won last year’s parliamentary election. (See previous post).

Eroğlu’s election is noteworthy because he is portrayed as a hardline nationalist in the Cyprus/TRNC conflict. President Talat was campaigning on a promise that he would deliver a deal with Cyprus in the conflict. However, Eroğlu apparently rejects any such deal.

Updated 6 May 2010

As noted above, the period of cohabitation ended with the election of President Eroğlu, who appointed Hüseyin Özgürgün of the UBP as prime minister on 23 April.

As discussed in a previous post, the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus has a semi-presidential constitution. The constitution is available here.

On Sunday early legislative elections were held. The term is five years. The last elections were held in February 2005.

There is a 50-seat parliament. TRNC Info reports that the Party of National Unity (UBP) has won 44%. The following seat share is reported: UBP 26 seats, Republican Turkish Party (CTP) 15 seats, Democratic Party (DP) 5 seats, Communal Democracy Party (TKP) 2 seats, and, a new party, the Freedom and Reform Party (ORP) 2 seats.

The President, Mehmet Ali Talat, is from the CTP. So, with an absolute majority for the UBP, this could lead to a period of cohabitation. Previously, or since September 2006 anyway, the government was a CTP/ORP coalition. Given the UBP favours closer ties with Turkey, whereas the CTP proposes the unification of the island, any such cohabitation could be problematic.