The Supreme Election Council of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus has officially announced the results of the presidential elections.
The candidate from the Republican Turkish Party, Tufan Erhürman, achieved a decisive victory with 62.76% of the votes, becoming the sixth president of the country.
The incumbent head of state, independent candidate Ersin Tatar, received 35.81% of the votes.
Voter turnout reached 64.87% — a total of 141,615 citizens cast their ballots, of which 138,839 were declared valid.
Seven candidates participated in the elections, but the remaining contenders received less than one percent of the votes:
Osman Zorba — 0.32%, Arif Salih Kyrdag — 0.33%, Ahmet Boran — 0.14%, Mehmet Hasgüler — 0.22%, İbrahim Yazıcı — 0.24%, Hüseyin Gürlek — 0.19%.
It is noted that since Rauf Denktaş, no president of the TRNC has been re-elected for a second term — power has consistently shifted to representatives of the opposing political camp.
President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan congratulated Tufan Erhürman on his victory:
“I congratulate Tufan Erhürman, elected president according to the unofficial results of today’s elections in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus,” Erdoğan wrote on the NSosyal social platform.
He expressed confidence that the election of the new president would benefit the entire region, emphasizing that Turkey “will continue to protect the sovereign rights and interests of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus at all levels.”
Tufan Erhürman was born in 1970 in Lefkoşa. He graduated from Türk Maarif College and the Faculty of Law at Ankara University. For many years, he was involved in academic and teaching work and participated in drafting the law establishing the ombudsman institution. In 2001, he earned a PhD in Law, and in 2014, became an associate professor.
Since 2013, Erhürman has served as a member of parliament, led the Republican Turkish Party (CTP), and in 2018, held the position of prime minister in a coalition government.