Presidential elections were held in

Northern Cyprus Northern Cyprus, officially the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), is a ''de facto'' state that comprises the northeastern portion of the Geography of Cyprus, island of Cyprus. It is List of states with limited recognition, recognis ...

on Sunday 17 April 2005.A New President in Northern Cyprus
German Institute for International and Security Affairs They followed

parliamentary elections A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. General elections ...

on 20 February, which had been won by the pro-unification

Republican Turkish Party The Republican Turkish Party (, CTP; ) is a social-democratic political party in Northern Cyprus. The party was founded in 1970 by Ahmet Mithat Berberoğlu, a lawyer, in opposition to the leadership of Fazıl Küçük and Rauf Denktaş. On 30 ...

(CTP). The CTP nominated its leader,

Mehmet Ali Talat Mehmet Ali Talat (born 6 July 1952) is a Turkish Cypriot politician who served as the president of Northern Cyprus from 2005 to 2010. Talat was the leader of the social democratic Republican Turkish Party (, CTP), from 1996 to 2005 and 2015 to ...

, who emerged as the clear winner with a 56% share of the vote. The notable absence in this election was the first and at that point only president of Northern Cyprus,

Rauf Denktaş Rauf Raif Denktaş (27 January 1924 – 13 January 2012) was a Turkish Cypriot politician, barrister and jurist who served as the founding president of Northern Cyprus. He occupied this position as the president of the Turkish Republic of Nort ...

. He had announced in mid-2004 that he would not be running again.

Electoral system

A candidate needed an

absolute majority A majority is more than half of a total; however, the term is commonly used with other meanings, as explained in the " Related terms" section below. It is a subset of a set consisting of more than half of the set's elements. For example, if a gr ...

of valid votes in order to win in the first round of voting. If no candidate secured the necessary majority, a second round of voting would have been held between the two top candidates.

Campaign

The election campaign began on 22 March and ended the day before the elections. Under rules set out by the High Electoral Committee, public opinion polls were not allowed be published or broadcast after 2 April.

Opinion polls

A poll had been conducted between 23 and 27 March 2005 by the ''Cyprus Social Research and Education Consultancy Centre'' (KADEM). It found that Mehmet Ali Talat would win an absolute majority in the first round. The poll of 1472 people across Northern Cyprus put the results as follows: * Mehmet Ali Talat - 54.9% * Derviş Eroğlu - 26.8% * Mustafa Arabacıoğlu - 8.9% * Hüseyin Angolemli - 2.5% * Nuri Çevikel - 1.2% * Zeki Beşiktepeli - 1.5% * Ayhan Kaymak - 0.6% * Arif Salih Kırdağ - 0.4% * Zehra Cengiz - 0.2% 54% of those polled said the election would be finalised in the first round, while 41% said a second round of voting would be required.

Results

The Turkish Cypriot electoral commission put the turnout at 69.58%, a lower figure than previous presidential elections, which have always been over 80%. It led UBP leader Derviş Eroğlu to question the legitimacy of the elections, pointing to the fact that so many voters had decided not to vote in protest.

References

{{Northern Cyprus elections

Presidential elections A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The ...

Presidential elections in Northern Cyprus 2005 in Northern Cyprus 2000s in Cypriot politics April 2005 in Europe