Eroglu wins elections in the north

The opposition National Unity Party (UBP), led by Dervis Eroglu, which advocates a two-state solution in the Cyprus problem , won parliamentary elections in the north yesterday winning 44% of the votes and 26 seats in the 50 member parliament, enough to form a government alone.

Talat's Republican Turkish Party (CTP) was runner up with just over 29% of the voters and 15 seats, while the Democrat Party gained 10.65% and 5 seats and two smaller parties won 2 seats each.

However, according to the Cyprus Mail, this may not mean the end of Talat as chief negotiator for the Turkish Cypriot side. His term does not end for another year, perhaps just long enough for him to come to an agreement with Christofias.A Western diplomat told Reuters that what this will mean is that "Talat has less of a free hand in negotiations essentially".

According to reports in the press, Eroglu now wants to send an observer to accompany Talat at the talks.

But a spokesman for the UBP told the Cyprus Mail: “We will not seek to sideline Talat or ignore what he has done so far [in negotiations]. We won't seek to wipe the slate clean. We will seek a consensus through the formation of a broad-based national council".

The reason for the CTP's loss, analysts say, is that the party had failed to fulfill its 2004 promise of a solution to the Cyprus problem along with EU membership, while the UBP wants to maintain the north’s umbilical relations with Turkey.The Cyprus Mail adds that Brussels enthusiasts are rare in the UBP, as are those who would back a solution blueprint along the lines of the one being discussed by the leaders of the two sides. Talat’s last minute invitation to see US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington on Wednesday was viewed by many as a last ditch effort to save the CTP.

Speaking at a rally on Tuesday night, Eroglu told his supporters, “Everyone here is from Anatolia. We may have come at different times, but the important thing is that we are all Turks and that we are Muslim”. Reports in Turkish mainland newspaper Sabah said that out of the 170,000 or so voters, 100,000 were Turkish settlers.Some Turkish Cypriots feel this election is more about economics than politics. The global recession has hit the north hard, compounding an economy that has effectively been shrinking since its famous property boom in the early 2000s. Last year it shrank by 1.9 per cent. This year it could fall as much as five per cent, some economists believe. “The economy is the most important criterion that voters will be influenced by. The Cyprus issue has unfortunately declined in importance because the negotiations appear to have been going very slowly,” Toros told the Cyprus Mail. He added that the CTP in some ways had become a victim of its own success because of EU-inspired structural reforms that had, in the short term at least, increased the cost of living.

“The current government has managed to succeed in making transitions needed for a settlement and for entry to the EU. But they have come at a cost,” Toros said.

Meanwhile UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told Foreign Minister Marcos Kyprianou during his visit to New York that the two leaders in Cypurs must keep up the momentum in the talks so they can reach a successful conclusion.

Kyprianou said he passed on the message that neither arbitration nor tight time frames should be imposed on the process. “What has been agreed in March 2008 should be followed because it is the only way to see a positive outcome from this process,” he said.

The Foreign Minister said it was important for the UN Secretary-General to be informed about the talks, not only by his representatives, “but also directly by us”.

Asked to comment on the meeting between US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat, Kyprianou praised the US handling of the affair. “The US administration received him as the representative of the Turkish Cypriot community, and clearly stated that it recognises only one government in Cyprus,” he said.

Regarding the possible appointment of a US Special Coordinator for Cyprus, Kyprianou said the Greek Cypriot side was ready to discuss the issue with the US, but noted that there had to be practical reasons to agree to something like that.

Kyprianou will meet with US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton on Monday.