TRNC Presidential elections
Presidential elections were held in the TRNC yesterday, 20th April 2015. Participation in the election was around 62.5%. Polling stations closed at 18.00 and shortly after 21.00 most of the votes had been counted showing unofficial results as follows:
Mustafa Onurer (Cyprus Socialist Party): 0.39 percent
Dr. Sibel Siber (CTP-BG): 22.51 percent
Kudret Özersay (Independent): 21.23 percent
Dr. Derviş Eroglu (Independent): 28.38 percent
Mustafa Ulaş (Independent): 0.24 percent
Mustafa Akıncı (Independent): 26.76 percent
Arif Salih Kırdağ (Independent): 0.49 percent
The President of the TRNC High Election Committee has confirmed that none of the candidates received the required minimum of more than 50% of the total number of votes to secure an election win and so the two candidates with the highest number of votes, Dr. Derviş Eroğlu and Mustafa Akıncı, will stand again in the second round of elections which will be held this Sunday 26th April 2015.
It is hoped that UN negotiations for a comprehensive solution to the Cyprus problem will resume after the second round of elections. The negotiations were suspended in October last year after the Greek Cypriot leader left the negotiating table claiming that hydrocarbon exploration activities by Turkey within the area which the Greek Cypriot administration claims as its own exclusive economic zone violated its sovereignty.