‘Chaos’ as Constitutional Court annuls election date

THE government has been accused of creating “chaos” after the highest court in the TRNC ruled on Wednesday that a law passed to delay local elections to November was “unconstitutional”.

Elections in North Cyprus for mayors, councillors and muhtars are supposed to take place at least once every four years. The last local government elections were

in June 2018, meaning that elections this year should have taken place by June 26.

However the threeparty coalition, which has a majority in Parliament, voted in favour of a law delaying the elections to November because they wanted more time to carry out reforms that would see the number of municipalities reduced before the election took place.

The main opposition Republican Turkish Party (CTP) then referred the matter to the Constitutional Court, which ruled that the law postponing local elections to November was against Article 119 of the Constitution. The judgement means that the November 27 date for local elections has been annulled.

Chief Justice Narin Şefik, explaining the Constitutional Court’s “unanimous” decision, stated that the last local elections in the TRNC were held on June 24, 2018, and that under both the Election and Referendum Law and Article 119 of the Constitution, local elections should have been held in June 2022.

Chief Justice Şefik noted that the Supreme Election Council had requested in a letter that Parliament set the election date in June but that this did not happen. She said it was now up to Parliament “to consider what will happen” next.

In a further blow to the government, Chief Justice Şefik pointed out that despite their terms of office ending in June, the amended law allowed elected officials such as mayors and councillors to continue to hold office until November 27, which also “violates the Constitution”.

In a statement to the press, CTP general secretary Erdoğan Sorakın said: “The illegal and unconstitutional attitude of the National Unity Party has been legally rejected once again . . . The planned November 27 local elections are null and void. . . Parliament has to sit down and make a new decision.”

Mr Sorakın added that the “country is in chaos” because “unfortunately the early elections that should have been held in June were not”.