Nationalist Turkish politician Bahceli calls for the rejection of north Cyprus presidential result, and the TRNC join Turkey

Turkish nationalist political party MHP leader Devlet Bahceli on Sunday night declared the landslide victory of pro-reunification TRNC new president-elect Tufan Erhurman to be “unacceptable” and called for northern Cyprus parliament to immediately reject the result and “join the Republic of Turkey” instead. 

“The results of the election held in the TRNC came about with very low turnout. The fate of the Turkish Cypriots cannot be represented by this turnout,” he began.

“Even if the election results are announced by the election council, the TRNC parliament must convene urgently, declare that the election results and the return to [talks based on a] federation are unacceptable, and decide to join the Republic of Turkey.”

Turnout on Sunday was 64.8 per cent – a higher rate than the first round of the 2020 election, but lower than that of that year’s second round, though Erhurman won almost 20,000 more votes on Sunday than Tatar did when he was elected five years ago, and more than 37,000 more votes than Tatar did on Sunday.

Bahceli’s MHP who belongs to Turkey’s People’s Alliance group, which comprises the parties which support the country’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has refused to congratulate Tufan Erhurman.

Erdogan himself said Sunday’s result “reflected the will of our Turkish Cypriot brothers and sisters” and congratulated Erhurman on his election victory.