The election of Ziya Ozturkler as the north’s ‘parliament’ speaker was placed into the north’s ‘government’ gazette on Wednesday, sparking fury among opposition figures, who claim he was not duly elected to the role.
The gazette reads that Ozturkler received 26 votes in his favour and 23 votes to reject him from ‘MPs’, and that as such he has become ‘parliament speaker’.
However, since the most recent of the 15 rounds of voting to elect a ‘speaker’ took place last week, opposition party the CTP has claimed that three of the votes counted by the ‘government’ as having been in in his favour were actually invalid as the ballot papers had been stamped multiple times.
CTP leader Tufan Erhurman confirmed in a post on social media on Thursday that his party had filed an official objection to the result claimed by the ‘government’ on the night the vote was held, while issuing a no holds barred condemnation of the ‘government’s’ decision to go ahead and publish the result they claim in the gazette.
“The disgrace continues! There is no meaning to this result! There is not a single person who believes that these ballot papers which were stamped twice were stamped with the intention of electing the candidate in question,” he began.
He added, “making such a publication in the gazette without considering our objection is nothing more than the ‘government’s’ attempt to throw parliament in crisis with the aim of covering up its own internal crisis.
“Would one not ask why they waited so long after voting to publish this, given that they were so sure he had been elected? A ‘government’ which cannot govern itself is trying to get out of this situation by disregarding the law and legitimacy by creating a fait accompli when it sees it has lost the ability to govern cannot govern a whole country!”
Ozturkler himself attempted to move on from the matter in his first statement after his name appeared in the gazette, saying, “as you know, the results were accepted in the official record and read out in parliament and announced.
“Based on this, it is clear the election has been completed and a legal basis has been established,” he said, before going on to promise to try his best in the role to make ‘parliament’ work faster and to “work for better tomorrows”.
Ozturkler had initially promised that should he fail to be elected within two rounds of voting, he would withdraw his candidacy. However, in the end, he went a full five rounds, bringing the total number of votes held since the start of the month to 15.
In the 15th round, the ruling coalition announced that Ozturkler had received 26 votes in his favour and 23 votes against and that he had thus been elected ‘speaker’.
However, opposition party CTP ‘MP’ Dogus Derya quickly revealed that three ballot papers the ruling coalition had counted as approvals had been stamped twice. In Turkish Cypriot elections, ballot papers which are stamped twice are counted as invalid.
As such, if the three votes are ruled invalid, Ozturkler would have received 23 votes in favour and 23 against, and it is unclear what would happen next in those circumstances.
The CTP has remained steadfast in its view that the votes are invalid and that Ozturkler is thus not ‘parliament speaker’, with ‘MP’ Erkut Sahali telling the Cyprus Mail on Monday “we think they will have to accept our claim” on the matter.
Despite this, he said, his party currently has no plans to take the matter to the ‘attorney-general’s’ office.
“In our opinion, this is a situation which politics should resolve,” he said.
Ozturkler had been nominated by the ruling coalition after the north’s ‘attorney-general’s’ office had ruled that despite his claims to the contrary, previous ‘speaker’ Zorlu Tore had not been re-elected to the role after receiving 23 votes in his favour and 25 votes to reject him.
Tore had claimed that as he was the only candidate, 23 votes were enough to see him re-elected, but the ‘attorney-general’s’ office was of the opinion that as he had not received more approvals than rejections, he had in fact not been elected.
