Elections in Northern Cyprus

Elections in Northern Cyprus, Turkish Cypriots elect a president and a legislature. The president is elected for a five year term by the people. The Assembly of the Republic ("Cumhuriyet Meclisi") has 50 members, elected for a five year term by mitigated proportional representation. Northern Cyprus has a multi-party system, with two or three strong parties and a third party that is electorally successful.

However the presidency, the parliament and any other authority in Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is unrecognized and it is just de facto because they are authorities of an unrecognized state, but the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus recognized by Turkey.

Presidential elections in TRNC take place every 5 years. In the elections in order to secure outright victory a candidate has to have at least 50% of the votes. Otherwise the candidates that receive the two highest votes will go to second round voting one week later and the winner becomes the president.

The Assembly of the Republic of Northern Cyprus is elected for a five year term by mitigated proportional representation. A party must cross the election threshold (5% of the total vote) to get any seats in parliament. The TRNC parliament is composed of 50 MPs, chosen from five electoral districts, Nicosia (Lefkoşa), Famagusta (Gazimağusa), Kyrenia (Girne), Morphou (Güzelyurt) and Trikomo (İskele).

In the TRNC parliamentary elections, voters vote for individual candidates. There are two ways of voting.
*One can either vote for a party, which in effect means is voting for every MP candidate from that party in that elections district once. The voter can further prioritize the MPs in this kind of voting.
*Or alternatively one may not choose a party but would vote for different MP candidates from different parties. In this kind of mixed voting, a person can not choose more than the number of MPs from that district.

Residents of northern Cyprus are eligible to stand for election and vote in the national elections of the Republic of Cyprus (The Constitution states that a Turkish-Cypriot should be Vice-President of the Republic) but most have chosen not to since the 1974 operations by Turkey. Turkish-Cypriots in the living in the free areas do participate in the elections.

Latest elections

2005 Presidential election

2005 Parliamentary elections

Past elections

Presidential elections

Parliamentary elections

Local elections