,  By  T-VINE

TRNC General Election 2022: UBP emerge as the largest party but short of a majority

There will be little change in the governance of the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus (TRNC) after the ruling National Unity Party (UBP) secured the largest number of votes and seats in Sunday’s General Election. However, without an outright majority, the UBP will again need to form a coalition.

Sunday’s win had been predicted, but the comprehensive manner of the victory will have pleased Prime Minister Faiz Sucuoğlu (pictured, top), who was forced to announce the snap elections a few weeks after taking over the leadership of UBP on 31 October 2021.

Mr Sucuoğlu not only increased his party’s share of vote to nearly 40%, but also the total number of MPs in the new Parliament, up from 20 in 2018 to 24. It was, however, two short of a majority, meaning he will need a junior partner in a new coalition government.

“We will draw up the map of the next phase by signing a protocol with a coalition partner that is close to us, supports our views and will not hinder us in the steps we will take economically,” PM Sucuoğlu said today.

Many analysts expect a continuation of the coalition with the Democrat Party, led by Fikri Ataoğlu which came third on Sunday with three MPs.

Sunday’s best performing party was the centre left Turkish Republican Party (CTP), who did better than the polls and pundits predicted.

Under the highly regarded academic turned lawyer Tufan Erhürman, the pro-federation CTP saw its share of vote jump by nearly 50% from 2018, to just under 32% on Sunday, and its MPs rise from 12 to 18.

The night’s big losers were the centrist People’s Party (HP), who saw their vote plummet by over 10% from four years ago, reducing the party’s parliamentary size from 9 to 3 MPs. There is no word yet on whether Kudret Özersay will continue as leader.

Another party suffering a huge decline at the polls was the Communal Democracy Party (TDP), which failed to receive sufficient votes to clear the 5% threshold for Parliamentary representation.

The party of former President Mustafa Akıncı had been hit a call for a boycott by the Turkish Cypriot hard right, who were angry at Ankara’s perceived interference in the 2020 Presidential polls that saw the incumbent Akıncı lose to Ersin Tatar in the run-off. The failure of some TDP voters to turn out, coupled with competition from splinter group the Communal Liberation Party – New Forces (TKP-YG), led by former TDP leader Mehmet Çakıcı, undermined the party’s efforts to send any representatives to the TRNC national assembly.

TDP’s dismal polling led to party leader Cemal Özyiğit tendering his resignation on Sunday night.

Former TRNC Muftu Talip Atalay enters in to the world of politics after being selected in the capital as an MP for the Rebirth Party.

The TRNC recorded its lowest turnout ever for a general election, with under 58% of the electorate voting.

According to the TRNC Electoral Board, 117,421 voters of a possible 203,792, equating to 57.62% of the electorate. casting their vote on Sunday.

This was more than 8% down on figures for the 2018 General Election, when turnout was 66.14%

Earlier today, the MPs for each party was also confirmed. The TRNC operates a form of Proportional Representation, allowing voters to give either a block vote to the party of their choice or vote for individual MPs from across multiple parties, or a mixture of the two.

TRNC General Election 2022 results

The official results announced by the TRNC Electoral Board after all 763 ballot boxes were counted, are as follows:

Parties who cleared the 5% voting threshold and secured seats in Parliament

  • National Unity Party (Ulusal Birlik Partisi, UBP) 39.61%, 24 MPs
  • Republican Turkish Party (Cumhuriyetçi Türk Partisi, CTP) 31.91%, 18 MPs
  • Democrat Party (Demokrat Parti, DP) 7.42%, 3 MPs
  • People’s Party (Halkın Partisi, HP) 6.69%, 2 MPs
  • Rebirth Party (Yeniden Doğuş Partisi, YDP) 6.44%, 3 MPs

Parties who received under 5% of the vote

  • Communal Democrat Party (Toplumcu Demokrasi Partisi, TDP) 4.40%, no MPs
  • Independence Way (Bağımsızlık Yol, BY), 1.94%, no MPs
  • Communal Liberation Party – New Forces (Toplumcu Kurtuluş Partisi-Yeni Güçler, TKP-YG) 1.56%, no MPs

Number of MPs per party in each TRNC district

Lefkoşa – 16 MPs

  • UBP 7: Faiz Sucuoğlu, Olgun Amcaoğlu, Ahmet Şavaşan, Hasan Taçoy, Alişan Şan, Sadık Gardiyanoğlu, and Zorlu Töre
  • CTP 6: Tufan Erhürman, Sıla Usar İncirli, Doğuş Derya, Ürün Solyalı, Devrim Barçın, and Filiz Besim
  • HP 1: Kudret Özersay
  • DP 1: Hasan Tosunoğlu
  • YDP 1: Talip Atalay

Gazimağusa – 13 MPs

  • UBP 6: Dursun Oğuz, Sunat Atun, Oğuzhan Hasipoğlu, Hakan Dinçyürek, Resmiye Eroğlu Canaltay, and Hüseyin Çavuş
  • CTP 4: Asım Akansoy, Teberrüken Uluçay, Erkut Şahali, and Şifa Çolakoğlu
  • DP 1: Fikri Ataoğlu
  • HP 1: Ayşegül Baybars
  • YDP 1: Erhan Arıklı

Girne – 11 MPs

  • UBP 5: Kutlu Evren, İzlem Gürçağ Altuğra, Ünal Üstel, Özdemir Berova, and Hasan Küçük
  • CTP 4: Ongun Talat, Fikri Toros, Fazilet Özdenefe, and Ceyhun Birinci
  • HP 1: Jale Refik Rogers
  • DP 1: Serhat Akpınar

İskele –5 MPs

  • UBP 3: Nazım Çavuşoğlu, Yasemi Öztürk, and Emrah Yeşilırmak
  • CTP 2: Biray Hamzaoğulları, and Fide Kürşat

Güzelyurt – 3 MPs

  • UBP 2: Ali Pilli, and Ziya Öztürkler
  • CTP 1: Armağan Candan

Lefke – 2 MPs

  • UBP 1: Fırtına Karanfil
  • CTP 1: Salahi Şahiner