Defeated parties strike coalition deal
POLITICAL parties defeated in last month’s general election are to forge a four-party coalition, unprecedented in the TRNC’s history.
The move came about after Hüseyin Özgürgün, incumbent prime minister and leader of the National Unity Party (UBP), failed in his efforts to form a new government, even though his party was the clear winner of the January 7 ballot.
UBP had seen a big increase in its share of the vote compared to the last election in 2013 but the swing was not enough for it to govern alone.
The party gained around 36 per cent of the votes, giving it 21 seats in the 50-seat Parliament, five short of the majority needed to pass new laws.
Mr Özgürgün’s only option to form a government had been to strike a deal with the Democrat Party (DP), which was left with three MPs, and the Rebirth Party’s (YDP) two MPs.
The three other parties in Parliament — the Republican Turkish Party (CTP), People’s Party (HP) and Social Democratic Party (TDP), had all ruled out a deal with UBP.
On Tuesday, Mr Özgürgün was forced to hand back his mandate to form a government to President Mustafa Akıncı after failing to persuade DP leader and “kingmaker” Serdar Denktaş to once again join forces with him. YDP had indicated its willingness to work with UBP.
The four-way deal was approved by a vote of the four parties’ assemblies on Monday. The partnership will have a total of 27 MPs, including 12 of CTP, nine from HP and three from the TDP.
Speaking after a CTP assembly approved its participation in the coalition, Dr Erhürman said such a coalition was “untested” in the TRNC.
“What is important is for the government to be administered as a whole and for every ministry to be responsible as part of the government,” he said.
“Our objective is to form a government of unity . . . Our objective is to form a government that . . . embraces all sections of the country.”
Mr Denktaş — whose party has previously entered into coalitions with the UBP, CTP and TDP — wrote on social media that a “new phase” in Turkish Cypriot politics had begun.
“Democracy, freedom, justice, human rights [and] equality are not fruits that grow on branches that can be picked and placed into a basket,” he said.
“These aren’t concepts that ‘either exist, or do not [exist]’.
“All of them need to be developed every day, over time, to be brought forward according to communal sensitivity and demands . . . ”
He said that “TRNC citizenship” was the “consolidating factor” in a “more democratic, more free, more just place of equal opportunity . . . where every individual can be proud of this citizenship”.
“Our love is democracy, our identity is our state,” he added.
Mr Denktaş said he had come under “a lot of pressure” from his party’s grassroots not to enter into the four-way link-up, but a two-hour DP assembly meeting, following a weekend of intense negotiation with UBP, had ended with a 67-15 vote against renewing the coalition with Hüseyin Özgürgün’s party.
He said the assembly had “gone into every issue, one by one” including how the new government would operate and its relations with Turkey.
“We all know that coalitions are unable to last the five years [of a government term]. If we can manage to work in harmony, it will go on for as long as it can go. We hope it will go for five years.
“We have not taken revenge against UBP.”
Mr Denktaş revealed that he had been “offered more” by UBP, including control of more ministries “and even position” — possibly a reference to the presidential election due in 2020, when sources told Cyprus Today UBP had offered to back Mr Denktaş as an independent candidate “of the right” — “but DP opted for a more free, democratic and equality-based [coalition model] to resurrect the dignity of the state”.
HP leader Kudret Özersay said: “I think we have shown the necessary flexibility in order to complete this process in the shortest possible time, taking into consideration the difficult circumstances faced by the country and in accordance with our responsibility towards our people in the name of the People’s Party.”
Dr Özersay said the four leaders had “reached a compromise” and had “all accepted the outcome”, declaring that he had “negotiated based on our [HP’s] principles”.
He warned, however, that maintaining a four-party coalition would “not be easy” but that he was determined to “foster the spirit of solidarity much needed in our community” and “do away with the dark clouds hovering above our country”.
TDP leader Cemal Özyiğit, whose party assembly gave unanimous support for the coalition, said: “This country misses and is in need of structural reforms to create a system that does not allow those who [do wrong] to get away with it; for those who ‘feed’ not to profit from it; for investigations, for prosecutions to be started; to go full on against malpractice; to have a government that produces results, which is the expectation of the public . . . this is why TDP has voted in favour of entering into a fourparty coalition.”