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Tufan Erhurman, leader of the Republican Turkish Party, appeared headed for victory in Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus's presidential election Sunday, securing more than 63% of the vote in preliminary results that would end incumbent Ersin Tatar's term.
With 580 of 777 ballot boxes counted, Erhurman held 63.28% of the vote compared to 35.27% for Tatar, who ran as an independent candidate, according to Bertan Ozerdag, head of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus Supreme Election Board.
The results, while unofficial, suggest Erhurman has cleared the 50% plus one vote threshold needed to win outright in the first round, avoiding a runoff election that would have been held within seven days.
Polls closed at 6 p.m. local time after opening at 8 a.m. across the territory, where 218,313 registered voters were eligible to cast ballots.
Seven candidates competed in the race, including five independents. The other candidates trailed far behind the two frontrunners: Osman Zorba of the Cyprus Socialist Party received 0.32%, while independents Arif Salih Kirdag took 0.34%, Ahmet Boran 0.15%, Mehmet Hasguler 0.23%, İbrahim Yazici 0.24%, and Huseyin Gurlek 0.18%.
Gurlek withdrew from the race Saturday and announced his support for Tatar, though his name remained on the ballot.
Under TRNC's electoral system, if no candidate secures a majority in the first round, the top two vote-getters advance to a second round. In that scenario, the candidate with the highest vote total wins the presidency.
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, a sovereign country in the northern third of the island of Cyprus, has been recognized only by Türkiye since its 1983 declaration of independence. The territory's political status remains one of the most intractable disputes in the eastern Mediterranean.
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