Erhurman says north ‘govt’ is ‘extremely unserious’ as crisis rolls on

Turkish Cypriot opposition political party CTP leader Tufan Erhurman described the north’s ‘government’s’ conduct as “extremely unserious” on Monday, as the political wrangling over attempts to appoint a ‘parliament speaker’ enters a fourth week.

Erhurman was reacting to statements made by ruling coalition party UBP secretary-general Oguzhan Hasipoglu on Friday, who said ballot papers from the ‘parliament speaker’ election which had been stamped twice were not invalid votes, as they would typically be counted, but in fact “indications that the voter really wanted to vote” for the ruling coalition’s nominee Ziya Ozturkler.

Erhurman said it would be “illogical” for ‘MPs’ to not know that ballot papers which are stamped twice are counted as invalid.

“There is a clear expression of will in doing that, and that will is that the voter in question did not want to vote for that candidate,” he said.

Hasipoglu had claimed that given that the ‘TRNC’s’ constitution does not make specific reference to multiple marks on a ballot paper during an election for a ‘parliament speaker’, the ruling coalition has the right to count votes which would be counted as invalid under normal circumstances as valid in this case.

The coalition claims Ziya Ozturkler received 26 votes in his favour and 23 votes to reject him a vote held two weeks ago, but the opposition claims three of the votes counted by the ‘government’ as having been in his favour were actually invalid as the ballot papers had been stamped multiple times.

If the three votes were declared invalid, Ozturkler would not be able to become ‘speaker’, given the precedent set by the north’s ‘attorney-general’s’ office’s rejection of Zorlu Tore’s claim that he had been elected ‘speaker’ after failing to win more votes in favour than against.

The CTP had filed an objection to the result the ruling coalition claimed with ‘parliament’s’ advisory board, but the ruling coalition ignored it and formally announced Ozturkler as ‘speaker’ in the ‘government’ gazette on Wednesday before holding a handover ceremony for him on Thursday.

Erhurman had said last week that if Ozturkler attempt to act as ‘speaker’ and hold sessions in ‘parliament’ as such, his party will not consider that ‘parliament’ is in session.

This proved true on Monday, with Ozturkler attempting to open ‘parliament’ and the CTP and two independent ‘MPs’ refusing to enter the chamber.

As such, UBP deputy leader Sunat Atun adjourned ‘parliament’ for a week, with the next session now planned for November 4.

Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar had taken the side of the ruling coalition in the dispute, even attending the UBP’s party congress’ meeting on Friday night to tell them that “even though the president is impartial, I am on the side of the people and the people do not want elections right now”.

Earlier, he had accused Erhurman of “causing chaos”, and criticised Erhurman’s assertion that a coup was being staged in the north’s ‘parliament’.

“This is so tragicomic, do our friends know what a coup actually is? They lined up to disgrace the TRNC in front of the whole world. Shame on them, I condemn it,” Tatar said.