North’s largest party’s congress endorses Tatar for re-election

The north’s largest political party the UBP’s party congress on Friday night officially endorsed Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar to be re-elected to the role when elections are held in October.

Party leader Unal Ustel convened the party congress at the party’s office in northern Nicosia’s central Sarayonu Square, and said after Tatar’s endorsement had been ratified that in the four and a half years since Tatar was elected to the role in October 2020, “he has not shied away from any sacrifice for the national cause”.

“Two equal sovereign states and our equal international status are the issues on the table today. Tatar has brought us to this day with his good relations with the Republic of Turkey and his contacts at the highest level,” he said.

Tatar had been a member of the UBP until his election in October 2020, with the ‘TRNC’s’ constitution requiring that elected Turkish Cypriot leaders relieve themselves of party political ties upon entering office. As such, he will officially run in October as an independent.

Despite this, in his speech accepting the party congress’ endorsement, he said his heart “is always with the UBP”.

“When we set out on this path, we told the UBP’s base and the people that a federal model was no longer a topic to be discussed because no results have been achieved in the negotiations which have been held for years, and a new policy was needed,” Tatar began.

“We have been successful in bringing this onto the world’s agenda in the four and a half years which have passed so far.”

Now, he said, “this new policy based on sovereign equality and equal international status have been voiced to the whole world by the President of the Republic of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and therefore, with our victory in this election, our national politics will have taken their full place”.

Tatar has for much of the year so far been trading the lead in polling for the election with opposition political party CTP leader and former ‘prime minister’ Tufan Erhurman.

Erhurman himself won the official endorsement of the CTP’s party congress on Thursday, with the party set to hold a full conference on Sunday where it is expected to officially proclaim him as its candidate.

In the most recent poll, carried out by polling firm Rudex and published at the end of February, Erhurman leads the way by five per cent, polling on 33 per cent compared to Tatar’s 28 per cent.

The Rudex poll is the latest among many to have predicted a two-horse race, which is set to see Turkish Cypriots faced with a choice between a leader who will advocate for a two-state solution to the Cyprus problem in Tatar, and one who will advocate for a federal solution in Erhurman.

Were Tatar to win re-election, he would be the first Turkish Cypriot leader to do so since Rauf Denktash won by default in 2000 after his second-round opponent Dervish Eroglu withdrew his candidacy.

Since then, Denktash did not stand for re-election and was replaced by Mehmet Ali Talat in 2005, Talat was beaten by Eroglu in 2010, Eroglu was beaten by Mustafa Akinci in 2015, and Akinci was beaten by Tatar in 2020.