Right groups get majority seats in Turkish Cypriot vote

NICOSIA, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Nationalist and center-right parties bagged most of the votes and seats in Sunday's vote of the Turkish Cypriot community, causing consternation among Greek Cypriot politicians over the prospects of ending the over 40 years of partition of Cyprus.

Final results published on Monday showed that the nationalist and center-right parties won 35 seats in the 50-member strong legislative chamber of the breakaway entity in the northern part of Cyprus, which is recognized only by Turkey.

Despite their sweeping victory, an administration by center-right parties will have a feeble majority, after Gudret Ozersay, a former negotiator on behalf of Turkish Cypriots and now the leader of the new People's Party, with 9 seats, said he will not take part in any coalition administration.

This will leave a coalition by the National Unity, Democratic and Rebirth parties with 26 votes, barely a reliable majority to stay in power for a long time.

The vote result was seen by Greek Cypriot politicians, who currently engaged in an electoral campaign for a presidential vote on Jan. 28, as a distancing of Turkish Cypriots from negotiations to end the partition of Cyprus.

Turkish Cypriot live in seclusion for over 40 years, after Turkish troops occupied the northern part of Cyprus in 1974, reacting to a coup organized by the rulers of Greece at the time.

Analysts said the turn of voters towards parties following a nationalist policy was caused by disappointment after the failure of the latest round of reunification negotiations in July.

"It was a possibility to be expected that the disillusionment over the failure of the negotiations would push the majority of Turkish Cypriot voters towards parties favoring a closer association with Turkey or even a separate state," Nicos Moudouros, an expert on Turkish and Turkish Cypriot affairs told state radio.

He explained that this happened in past elections when Turkish Cypriot voters saw their expectations for an end to the partition to come to nothing.

Yet, despite the gloomy atmosphere, a psychology professor at the University of Cyprus told state radio that a large majority of Turkish Cypriots support a federal solution.

Haris Psaltis told state radio that according to data of a survey currently being evaluated, about 75 percent of Turkish Cypriots either support or consider a federal state as the most acceptable arrangement. Enditem