Low Turnout in Critical Elections in TRNC

The elections will select the 50 deputies who will select the president in August as well as conduct the prospective Cyprus negotiations. The excitement in the election campaign is much less than the excitement experienced in December 2003. The result of the elections will make the way for the presidency elections on April 17 and for one of the next scenarios after that. The appearance of possible political stability in the island, the cold weather, the unkept promises of the international community to the TRNC and the public’s already having voted in to both general and local elections as well as a referendum in the last year and a half are all reasons for the low turnout. Examining the atmosphere in the island hours before the general elections, Zaman tried to project how the election results will affect the political dynamics of TRNC.

Without the determination of the president, no important ‘change’ is expected in either domestic or foreign politics in the TRNC. Defining today’s elections as ‘a public poll for the presidential elections’, a writer for the Cyprus newspaper Hasan Hasturer says: "None of the parties competing in this elections will give a headache to Turkey in its path towards the European Union (EU). This is experienced for the first time on the island." On the other side, the statement of the President Rauf Denktas that he will not be a candidate for president is widely disbelieved. The editor in chief of Cypriot Newspaper Dr. Dogan Harman, who says that he knows Denktas very well, claims, "We will see him as a candidate if the National Unity Party (UBP) gets a good result from the ballots." It is not certain yet whether Denktas will make a surprise or not, but surveys suggest that the Republican Turk Party-United Forces (CTP-BG) and Democrat Party (DP) coalition will run the country. Other possibilities are the CTP’s attaining sole power or the UBP’s winning. Compared to these two possibilities, a possible coalition government sounds ‘more realistic’. CTP-BG under the leadership of the Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Talat sees coalition with Serdar Denktas’ DP as the ‘lesser of two evils’. Talat side thinks their being the only power will be beneficial both for the solution of Cyprus issue and Turkey’s following a comfortable policy in its way towards EU. Talat and Denktas do not welcome the UBP.