Sila Usar Incirli, the leader of Turkish Cypriot opposition political party the CTP, on Sunday said early legislative elections in the north are “inevitable”, as her party seeks a return to power for the first time since 2019.
“The people are waiting for the CTP and we are ready. Early elections are inevitable,” she told the north’s Tak news agency, before criticising the incumbent ruling coalition for “ignoring our call for early elections in March”.
Instead, she said, the ruling coalition is “aiming for January 2027”, just weeks before the latest possible date on which fresh legislative elections can be held in the north.
“The CTP will not remain passive on this issue and will actively bring up early elections while the budget is being debated in parliament … The demand for early elections will be raised more strongly outside parliament, with civil society organisations, unions, economic organisations, other political parties, and the public,” she said.
To this end, she said her party’s goal is “to ensure that early elections are held in the first quarter of 2026, or at the latest, in the first half”.
“We have received a call from the public to ‘come and save us’ … Our government will be a government of justice, merit, solidarity, and progress. The CTP will come to power strongly in 2026,” she said.
The CTP finds itself in the ascendancy in Turkish Cypriot politics at present, with Incirli’s predecessor Tufan Erhurman having been elected as Turkish Cypriot leader in a landslide victory in October, unseating incumbent Ersin Tatar, who had been backed by the north’s three-party ruling coalition.
Turkish Cypriot leaders are required to relieve themselves of party political ties upon entering office, and as such, Erhurman’s election paved the way for Incirli to stand for and win the party’s leadership, becoming the party’s first ever female leader on November 30.
The most recent poll regarding the next Turkish Cypriot legislative election was published by CMIRS in October, and foresaw that the CTP would win 42.3 per cent of the vote, that the ruling coalition’s largest party the UBP would win 34.2 per cent of the vote, and that no other party would break the five-per-cent threshold required to enter the north’s ‘parliament’.
Were this result to play out in reality, the CTP would have a ‘parliamentary’ majority in and of itself and thus be able to form an administration without the need to enter into a coalition with another party for the first time in its 55-year history.
That CMIRS poll was conducted in tandem with a poll regarding October’s Turkish Cypriot leadership election, and vastly underestimated Tufan Erhurman’s performance at the time, foreseeing that he would win by a margin just shy of 10 per cent. He went on to win the election by a 27-per-cent margin.
However, the choice of when a legislative election may take place rests with ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel, who stressed last month that he intends to wait as long as he can before returning to the electorate.
“The UBP never shies away from elections. It is always ready for an election. The election date is January 2027, but if conditions improve in 2026, we will meet with our partners and discuss the prospect. We have no reservations,” he said.
He has faced pressure to either hold an election or resign from both inside and outside his party, the UBP, but despite this, still appears to be in control of when an election may take place and of whether or not he will resign.
The ruling coalition at present commands the support of 29 of the north’s 49 ‘MPs’, and while opposition to Ustel is brewing inside the ruling coalition, none of the 29 have given any indications of a will to force him into holding an early election as yet.
In addition to the matter of elections, Incirli also spoke on Sunday about the Cyprus problem.
“The will of the Turkish Cypriot people for a solution was clearly demonstrated in the 2004 [Annan plan] referendum, in Crans Montana in 2017, and in the October 19 presidential election, in which Tufan Erhurman was elected with great public support,” she said.
To this end, she said her party desires a “bicommunal, bizonal federal solution based on political equality”, and stressed that “it would be unacceptable for the Turkish Cypriots to suffer further harm if the Greek Cypriot side continues to display an uncompromising stance, as in the past”.
“Political equality is non-negotiable. Open-ended negotiations have proven futile, and we do not want to return to the status quo if the negotiating table collapses again … We will support President Erhurman’s efforts to achieve a just and lasting solution, and we will continue to work to establish negotiations,” she said.
