Main opposition leader Erhürman wins Turkish Cyprus election

NICOSIA

Tufan Erhürman, the leader of the Republican Turkish Party (CTP), has won the presidential election in the Turkish Cyprus with 62.76 percent of the vote, according to preliminary results announced by the electoral authority on Oct. 19 evening.

Erhürman defeated incumbent President Ersin Tatar, who received 35.81 percent of the vote.

Voter turnout in the presidential election was 64.87 percent, the Supreme Election Board of Turkish Cyprus said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan congratulated Erhürman.

"I hope this election, in which our Turkish Cypriot brothers expressed their will through ballot box, is beneficial to our countries and the region," Erdoğan said.

As motherland and guarantor, Türkiye will continue supporting Turkish Cypriot welfare and development, Foreign Ministry said.

Responding to the election results, Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz said: “The elections have demonstrated the maturity of the Turkish Cyprus as a state and of its voters. As the motherland and guarantor country, we will continue to stand by the Turkish Cyprus.”

Following the election results, Erhürman said: “Foreign policy will naturally be conducted in close consultation with Türkiye — let there be no doubt about that.”

Earlier, voting for the presidential election began on Sunday morning, with voters casting ballots from 8 a.m. (0500GMT) to 6 p.m. (1500GMT) at 777 polling stations across the country. Turkish Cyprus has 218,313 eligible voters.

Incumbent President Tatar ran as an independent candidate, while Erhürman contested as his party’s nominee.

Tatar advocates a two-state solution envisioning two sovereign states, one for Greek Cypriots in the south and one for Turkish Cypriots in the north, recognized as equal and independent in the international arena – a model that is also backed by Ankara.

Erhürman, in contrast, supports a federal solution, which would also garner support from Greek Cypriots.

Mehmet Hasgüler, Arif Salih Kırdağ, Ahmet Boran and İbrahim Yazıcı also ran as independents, while Osman Zorba represented the Cyprus Socialist Party.

Hüseyin Gürlek, whose name appeared on the ballot, had initially planned to run but withdrew his candidacy on Oct. 18 in support of Tatar.

The newly elected president of Turkish Cyprus was born in Nicosia and completed his secondary education at Turkish Maarif College in 1988.

He received his law degree from Ankara University in 1992 and worked as a research assistant in the Department of Administrative Law, teaching courses at Ankara University, Hacettepe University, and Middle East Technical University. He earned his doctorate with a thesis on non-judicial oversight and the Ombudsman System.

Erhürman later served on drafting commissions for Türkiye’s Ombudsman Institution Law and joined the law faculties of Eastern Mediterranean University and Near East University, where he also served as deputy dean at EMU’s law faculty.

In 2005, he was part of the negotiation team that established the Immovable Property Commission under then-President Mehmet Ali Talat.

He was elected Nicosia MP for the Republican Turkish Party (CTP) in 2013, earned the title of associate professor of law in 2014, and was named CTP secretary-general in 2015. Erhürman was elected party leader in 2016 and served as prime minister of the quadruple coalition government formed in 2018.

Fluent in English, Erhürman is married with one child.