CYPRUS: Pre-election period heating up in Turkish Cypriot community

As the elections for the new Turkish Cypriot leader in April 2020 draws closer, parties in the occupied north of the island are preparing their campaign strategy.

The main opposition party, left-wing Turkish Republican Party (CTP) is holding its ordinary general congress on Sunday which is expected to elect the party’s new assembly which will designate CTP’s stance in the upcoming elections.

It is expected the assembly will rubberstamp the candidacy of Tufan Erhurman, who will be re-elected as the party’s president, as he is standing uncontested for the post.

Erhurman was the leader of a short-lived four-party coalition which ruled in the north for 15 months before collapsing in May this year, under the weight of a land scandal involving Serdar Denktash, leader of the Democratic Party, one of CTP’s main partners.

If chosen, Erhurman is expected to take on current Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci and head of the Turkish Cypriot foreign affairs office and head of the People’s Party (HP) Kudret Ozersay.

CTP secured 21% of the vote and 12 out of the 50 seats in the last general election held in 2018.