The disabled fail to win a seat
DISABLED people remain unrepresented in the TRNC Parliament after none were elected in January 7’s general election.
The poll made history by having what was believed to be a record seven disabled candidates standing as prospective MPs. However not one was successful.
The seven, standing for various parties, were former head of the Association for Handicapped People Serdar Hacımehmet; former Farmers’ Union generalsecretary Turgut Ceyda; Günay Kibrit, head of the Orthopaedic Disabled People’s Association, and former leader of the association Orkun Bozkurt; Çelen Çağansoy, a member of Lefkoşa Turkish Municipality’s Lefkoşa Without Barriers Unit; Emrullah Avşan, a member of the Orthopaedic Disabled People’s Association; and independent Ayhan Korel.
No disabled candidate stood for the National Unity Party (UBP), which gained the most seats in the election.
Speaking to Cyprus Today’s Turkish-language sister newspaper Kıbrıs, some of candidates expressed disappointment over a lack of support from the public to put them into the 50-seat Parliament — a move they believed could have helped solve ongoing problems faced by disabled people in areas such as employment, accessibility and equal rights. Several of the would-be MPs also criticised the parties they stood for, saying they could have done more to help. Despite their disappointment, they said they were determined to keep fighting to improve the lives of disabled people.
Mr Kibrit, who stood in Lefkoşa for the Republican Turkish Party (CTP), blamed “a lack of public will” for their defeat, saying: “I think [people] could not envisage us having a seat in Parliament.”
Ms Çağansoy, a Lefkoşa candidate for the Social Democratic Party (TDP), said that although there was “a general belief” among the public that disabled people should be in Parliament, “they are still not ready for that”.
Mr Bozkurt, who had represented the People’s Party (HP), said another factor was that there were “simply too many candidates” standing, at 388.
Mr Hacımehmet, a Democrat Party (DP) candidate alongside Mr Ceyda, blamed all political parties for the failure, saying they had not created sufficient public awareness to enable election of disabled MPs.
Emrullah Avşan, who stood in Lefke for the Rebirth Party (YDP), said: “Either the disabled candidates could not express themselves very well to voters or the public did not want to see them in the Parliament . . . We do not feel defeated, though, and will continue our efforts.”