Committee of MPs suggest election date of April 3, 2022
A COMMITTEE of MPs has recommended that an early general election should take place on Sunday, April 3, 2022.
The last general election in the TRNC was held in January 2018, when the National Unity Party (UBP) emerged as the party with the most seats, but not enough to form a majority.
The current minority coalition of the UBP, Rebirth Party (YDP) and Democrat Party (DP), formed last December and with the support of independent MPs, is the third since the 2018 vote. MPs are elected for a period of five years.
On Tuesday Sunat Atun, UBP MP and chair of the “Determining the Election Date, Preparing and Discussing the Election and Referendum Law Amendments Parliamentary Ad-Hoc Committee” presented the “Renewal of Elections to the TRNC Parliament Draft Bill” during a meeting of the committee.
He announced that the draft Bill and election date were approved by a majority of votes.
Answering questions from a reporter after the meeting, Mr Atun said that MP Serdar Denktaş had suggested February 2022 as the early election date, while other MPs on the committee agreed on April 3, 2022.
He called on the opposition parties — the Republican Turkish Party (CTP), People’s Party (HP) and Social Democracy Party (TDP) — to “take their places on the committee and to participate in the work to eliminate the shortcomings in the Bill”.
Stating that it was important to take a decision “in one go” at the meeting held on Tuesday, Mr Atun, said: “I wish other parties would share their opinions and suggestions by ensuring the participation of their members in the space reserved for them on the committee.”
He added that Parliament’s General Assembly will have the “final word” on the proposed early election date, when all MPs will get to vote on the issue.
The MPs who attended the committee meeting were: Bertan Zaroğlu (YDP), Özdemir Berova (UBP), Serdar Denktaş (DP), Menteş Gündüz (UBP), Zorlu Töre (UBP) and Hasan Büyükoğlu (Independent).