LEFKOSA, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
The Republican Turkish Party was leading in local elections Sunday in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), with seven of its mayoral candidates winning.
According to unofficial results, six of the National Unity Party’s candidates and three independent candidates also won while the Democrat Party and Communal Democracy Party each secured a mayoral seat.
A total of 208,236 registered voters were eligible to cast their votes at 768 ballot boxes across the country.
Voters chose 18 mayors, 220 city council members, 240 headmen and 960 council of elders, according to the country’s Supreme Election Board.
Turkish Cypriots will decide on 67 candidates, six of them women, for the mayoral posts.
Voting started at 8 a.m. local time (0600GMT), with polls to close at 6 p.m. (1600GMT).
Partners in the TRNC’s ruling coalition — the National Unity Party, Democrat Party and Rebirth Party — are participating in the elections as a full alliance.
Cyprus has been mired in a decades-long dispute between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. The TRNC was founded in 1983, several years after Turkiye’s military intervention on the island as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution, violence and ethnic attacks.
