Turkish Cypriots Vote for New Leader
Turkish Cypriot voters in breakaway northern Cyprus went to the polls Sunday to elect a leader who will head peace talks with the Greek Cypriots on the divided island.
Seven candidates including incumbent Dervis Eroglu, president of the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), were contesting the election.
Polls have suggested no candidate will emerge with a clear majority, sending the election to a runoff next Sunday between the top two in the first round.
"I voted for someone who can resolve the problem" of the four-decade division of Cyprus, said Hussein Ors, a 57-year-old civil servant emerging from a polling station in northern Nicosia.
"We hope every time but always end up being disappointed," said another voter, Hulya Tozake, also 57, blaming both the Greek Cypriot side and Ankara.
Eroglu's main challengers are Sibel Siber -- the sole woman candidate, the head of parliament and a former prime minister -- and Mustafa Akinci, an independent and former mayor of northern Nicosia.
Polling stations opened at 8:00 am (0500 GMT) and were to close 10 hours later, with the first results expected late on Sunday.
About 176,000 people are eligible to vote in the breakaway TRNC, which occupies about a third of the eastern Mediterranean island.
In 1974, in response to an Athens-engineered coup seeking a union with Greece, Turkish troops invaded northern Cyprus, with the TRNC later unilaterally declaring independence in 1983.
Only Turkey recognises the TRNC, which relies on Ankara to provide one third of its annual budget.
Whoever wins the election, Cyprus will be hamstrung by a geopolitical snarl that generations of leaders and successive U.N. chiefs have failed to untangle.
The island has been split since 1974, with about 1,000 peacekeepers monitoring a ceasefire line that cuts through the heart of Nicosia, Europe's last divided capital.
Decades of talks have failed to unify the island, including a plan by then-U.N. secretary general Kofi Annan which was approved by Turkish Cypriot voters in 2004 but overwhelmingly rejected by Greek Cypriots in separate referenda.
Cyprus joined the European Union that year still a divided island and, although the north is technically part of the bloc, Turkish Cypriots are denied nearly all of the benefits of EU membership.
U.N. peace envoy Espen Barth Eide announced on April 7 that peace negotiations are set to resume after the vote.
But many Turkish Cypriots have lost faith in their leaders' ability to reach a deal and open the TRNC to the rest of the world.
"People have been born, lived, had children and families, and died waiting for them to resolve something," said human rights lawyer Ermine Colak.
Source: Agence France Presse
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