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.
WAKE-UP CALL: Firms in the private sector were not taking basic precautions, despite the cyberthreats from China and Russia, a US cybersecurity official said A ninth US telecom firm has been confirmed to have been hacked as part of a sprawling Chinese espionage campaign that gave officials in Beijing access to private texts and telephone conversations of an unknown number of Americans, a top White House official said on Friday. Officials from the administration of US President Joe Biden this month said that at least eight telecommunications companies, as well as dozens of nations, had been affected by the Chinese hacking blitz known as Salt Typhoon. US Deputy National Security Adviser for Cyber and Emerging Technologies Anne Neuberger on Friday told reporters that a ninth victim
Russia and Ukraine have exchanged prisoners of war in the latest such swap that saw the release of hundreds of captives and was brokered with the help of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), officials said on Monday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that 189 Ukrainian prisoners, including military personnel, border guards and national guards — along with two civilians — were freed. He thanked the UAE for helping negotiate the exchange. The Russian Ministry of Defense said that 150 Russian troops were freed from captivity as part of the exchange in which each side released 150 people. The reason for the discrepancy in numbers
A shark attack off Egypt’s Red Sea coast killed a tourist and injured another, authorities said on Sunday, with an Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs source identifying both as Italian nationals. “Two foreigners were attacked by a shark in the northern Marsa Alam area, which led to the injury of one and the death of the other,” the Egyptian Ministry of Environment said in a statement. A source at the Italian foreign ministry said that the man killed was a 48-year-old resident of Rome. The injured man was 69 years old. They were both taken to hospital in Port Ghalib, about 50km north
MISSING: Prosecutors urged the company to move workers out of poor living conditions to hotels, but residents said many workers had already left the town Brazil has stopped issuing temporary work visas for BYD, the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday, in the wake of accusations that some workers at a site owned by the Chinese electric vehicle producer had been victims of human trafficking. The announcement came days after labor authorities said they found 163 Chinese workers who had been brought to Brazil irregularly in “slavery-like” conditions at the BYD factory construction site in the northeastern state of Bahia. The workers were employed by contractor Jinjiang Group, which has denied any wrongdoing. Later, the authorities also said the workers were victims of human trafficking,
RSS