Turkish Cypriot legislature defies Erhurman, changes voting system again

The Turkish Cypriot legislature on Tuesday voted for the second time to alter the way in which legislative elections are held ahead of a likely election in December, defying Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman, who vetoed the law after it was passed through the legislature for the first time earlier this month. Tuesday’s vote abolished the practice of “mixed voting”, and was passed with 28 votes in its favour to 10 against after an extraordinary session was called to allow the matter to be discussed after Erhurman’s veto. In the legislature, ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel criticised Erhurman’s decision to veto the law, saying that “amendments to electoral law have been made in the past with only 60, 78, or 90 days until an election”. He also criticised Erhurman’s reference to electoral law in Turkey, where changes only take force one year after they are passed, thus preventing those in power from changing the system at the last minute for their own benefit. “It is not right for Erhurman to use the Republic of Turkey’s constitution as an example. This is the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, and we have our own separate constitution,” he said. Voters at the next election will now only be able to vote for candidates from one party, rather than having the option of choosing individual candidates from multiple parties, as they had done at all previous elections. No date has yet been set for the election, though it is likely that it will be held on December 6, the same day as the forthcoming Turkish Cypriot local elections. The legislature will vote to determine the date of the election on Thursday next week. Election ‘should have been held earlier’ Tuesday’s changes have proved unpopular among opposition figures, however, with opposition party CTP leader Sila Usar Incirli telling the legislature that she feels the changes are being made due to electoral expediency. “The day you have been waiting for has arrived. With only 68 days until the election, you have convened parliament to abolish mixed voting. You have worked very hard, fought a lot, had great anxieties,” she said. She added that the election “should have been held much earlier”, and that that “was also the will of the people”, but “you tried to ignore it”. “The president said that it is not right to make such important changes so close to the election. He was absolutely right. This law should not belong to the UBP or the CTP, it should belong to the will of the voters,” she said. Later in her address, she made reference to recent polling, which places her party on course for a landslide victory and an end to the UBP’s seven-and-a-half-year stint in control of the Turkish Cypriot administration. “Whether mixed voting is abolished or not, the result of this election will not change. It seems that the voters have already made their decision. You will not be here on the morning of December 7. People will breathe a sigh of relief on the morning of December 7. We will begin a new era and the damage you have inflicted on this country will come to an end,” she said. Ustel offered a different forecast, telling the legislature that “you will see in the election that the UBP will once again emerge as the first-place party, form the government, and continue serving this country for another five years, because we have made promises to our people and we will fulfil them”.