Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus presidential election, 2005

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Presidential elections were held in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus on Sunday April 17, 2005. It followed parliamentary elections in the internationally unrecognised country on February 20, which had been won by the pro-unificiation Republican Turkish Party (CTP).

It is traditional in Turkish Cypriot presidential elections for political parties to nominate individuals as their candidate, although the number of independents have increased in recent polls. The CTP nominated its leader, Mehmet Ali Talat, who emerged as the clear winner with a 56% share of the vote. The notable absence in this election was the first and (thus far) only president of Northern Cyprus, Rauf Denktaş. He had announed in mid-2004 that he would not be running again.

1 System
2 Schedule
3 Results
- 3.1 Election results
- 3.2 March 30 public survey

[edit] System

A candidate needs an absolute majority of valid votes in order to win a Turkish Cypriot presidential election. If no candidate secures the necessary majority, a second round of voting is held between the two top candidates. The candidate with a simple majority in this election is elected to a five-year term as president.

[edit] Schedule

The election campaign began on March 22 and will end the day before the election, on April 16. Under rules set out by the High Electoral Committee, public opinion polls cannot be published or broadcast after April 2. Results for the first round are announced a few hours after polls close.

[edit] Results

[edit] Election results

As published by the Anatolia News Agency on April 18. Results are considered unofficial until published in the Official Gazette.

Candidate	Party	Votes	Share of total vote
Mehmet Ali Talat	Republican Turkish Party	55,943	55.6
Derviş Eroğlu	National Unity Party (UBP)	22,869	22.73
Mustafa Abramcıoğlu	Democrat Party (DP)	13,302	13.22
Nuri Çevikel	New Party (YP)	4816	4.79
Zeki Beşiktepeli	Independent	1728	1.72
Hüseyin Angolemli	Communal Liberation Party (TKP)	1054	1.05
Zehra Cengiz	Cyprus Socialist Party	439	0.44
Arif Salih Kırdağ	Independent	306	0.3
Ayhan Kaymak	Independent	168	0.17

The Turkish Cypriot electoral commission put the turnout at 69.58% - a lower figure than previous presidential elections, which have always been over 80%. It led UBP leader Derviş Eroğlu to question the legitimacy of the election, pointing to the fact that so many voters had decided not to vote in protest.

[edit] March 30 public survey

A poll had been conducted between March 23 and March 27 by the Cyprus Social Research and Education Consultancy Centre (KADEM). It found that Mehmet Ali Talat would win an absolute majority in the first round. The poll of 1472 people across North Cyprus put the results as follows: