Former Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat on Saturday warned Turkish Cypriot ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel against delaying the next legislative election, saying that doing so will serve to harm Ustel’s party, the UBP, more.

He said the CTP, the party he led between 1996 and 2005, when he became Turkish Cypriot leader, and the party which is currently leading in the polls, will “be in a politically more advantageous position as the election date is delayed”.

Delaying the election date, he said, will serve to improve the CTP’s numbers, and allow the party to thus win more seats when an election is eventually held and “strengthen its expectation of forming a single-party government”.

Only twice since 1983 have Turkish Cypriot administrations comprised only one political party, between 1990 and 1994, and between 2009 and 2013, both times under the UBP, and both times following elections won by Dervish Eroglu, who on the second occasion vacated the position of ‘prime minister’ in 2010 to become Turkish Cypriot leader.

The current ruling coalition comprises three parties, the UBP, the DP, and the YDP.

However, while Talat’s natural affiliation would be to the CTP, he did warn on Saturday that the current coalition remaining in power for what he believes to be too long may have negative effects for Turkish Cypriot society.

“It is undeniable that the CTP will be in a more advantageous position as the election date is delayed, but at what cost to society? That is the problem, because costs are constantly rising, and even if the next government will benefit politically from this, ultimately, the CTP is part of this country,” he said.

He added that the CTP “wants its country and its people to live in better conditions”.

“I have never said before that I would prefer a later election to a timely one. If the election is not held on time, the UBP will suffer more damage. No one sees this government as having been successful,” he said.

Unal Ustel

The most recent Turkish Cypriot legislative election took place in January 2022, and as such, the next must take place in February next year at the latest.

However, in recent months, calls have been made by the opposition for an election to be held sooner rather than later, particularly in light of the ruling coalition’s endorsed candidate Ersin Tatar suffering a landslide defeat at the hands of then CTP leader Tufan Erhurman at last year’s Turkish Cypriot leadership election.

More recently, both the CTP and the Turkish Cypriot trade union movement renewed their calls for early elections to be held after thousands of people staged protests outside, and on one occasion, inside the Turkish Cypriot legislature against plans to cut payments of the cost-of-living allowance to public sector workers.

Incumbent CTP leader Sila Usar Incirli insisted last month that “elections will be held in June, and a new government will come to power, prepare a budget, and work to get the country out of this crisis”.

However, Ustel has remained resolute, stressing that the election will be held in January, with the decision resting in his hands for as long as he commands the support of the majority of members of the legislature.

Sila Usar Incirli

At present, he has the effective support of 23 members of the UBP, and two apiece from the DP and the YDP, as well as one independent, with the legislature currently having 49 members.

The CTP was most recently in power between 2018 and 2019, as the largest party in a four-party coalition alongside the HP, the DP, and the TDP, under the leadership of then ‘prime minister’ Erhurman.

Since then, the UBP has spent almost seven consecutive years in power – the longest continuous stint of any party in power in the north since Dervish Eroglu spent eight and a half years as ‘prime minister’ during his first stint in the job, between 1985 and 1994.

However, this time around, their stint has taken in four ‘prime ministers’.

The first, Ersin Tatar, left the post to become Turkish Cypriot leader in 2020, the second, Ersan Saner, resigned after a video of him performing sexual acts on himself was leaked in 2021, and the third, Faiz Sucuoglu, resigned over internal party wranglings.

Incumbent Unal Ustel, however, will on May 24 become the second-longest serving ‘prime minister’ in the history of the ‘TRNC’.

Having taken over from Sucuoglu on May 12, 2022, he will overtake the CTP’s Ferdi Sabit Soyer, who served for a total of four years and nine days, and remain behind only Eroglu, who spent a mammoth 16 years and 304 days in the job across three stints.