What the papers say

“PEOPLE are governed by those they deserve to be governed by” was the headline over a column witten by Havadis editor Başaran Düzgün the day after Sunday’s early TRNC general election.

“What is the net result of the election? It had just one clear result, that UBP [National Unity Party] has won a clear victory,” he said. “But what kind of a government can now be expected?”

Mr Düzgün said UBP chief Hüseyin Özgürgün had taken over a party that had been “torn to pieces and disasterously lost its previous leader” in the 2013 election.

“When Hüseyin Özgürgün said at the party congress that his aim was to make UBP the top party again, many . . . just sniggered,” he said.

“In those days, it was widely believed that the UBP was not going to pull itself together easily and that Özgürgün was a caretaker leader who would soon be gone.

“But time has proved them wrong. And the election held yesterday confirmed that this was not the case.”

He said the UBP victory was despite the fact that the opposition had carried out a campaign directly targeting Mr Özgürgün, spawning wide coverage of his assets and his divorce. “UBP emerged as the winner despite the fact that not just Özgürgün but other ministers had carried out deeds that bordered on criminality and partisanship,” he said.

“The saying that people are governed by those they deserve to be governed by has been confirmed once again.”

A coalition government with UBP as the major partner would be “the obvious outcome” of the election, said Mr Düzgün.

“In the wake of a statement by CTP [Republican Turkish Party] in particular that it would not take part in a coalition, this has become almost a certainty. What is not likely is a UBP-HP [People’s Party] coalition.”

Another possibility, he said, was a coalition between UBP-DP and the Social Democratic Party (TDP), adding that DP had already been UBP’s governing partner.

“TDP may enter into a coalition by citing critical developments that will take in the Cyprus talks.

“But there is another formula which everyone is very careful not to mention and that is a UBP-DPYDP [Rebirth Party] coalition.

“That, I think, would be the beginning of a disaster for the country,” he concluded.