Turkish Cypriots change voting system ahead of legislative elections

The Turkish Cypriot legislature voted on Thursday to change their voting system and do away with the “mixed voting”, meaning that voters will now only be able to choose candidates from one party when the next legislative elections are held, most likely in December. Thursday’s vote passed through the legislature with 26 votes in its favour to 19 against, with 22 members of ruling coalition party the UBP, two of its coalition partner the DP, as well as Erhan Arikli, the leader of the YDP, which left the coalition last week and independent Hasan Tosunoglu, who caucuses with the coalition, voting in favour. Against the motion were 17 members of the CTP, as well as independents Aysegul Baybars and Jale Refik Rogers.

Mixed voting allowed voters to choose candidates from multiple parties The “mixed voting” system allowed Turkish Cypriot voters at legislative elections to choose candidates from multiple parties, should they not wish to be confined to a single party. Voters who chose to cast their ballot in this way were required to choose between 23 and 50 candidates overall and were required to vote for candidates either from at least two different parties, or for one party and one independent candidate. The north is split into six electoral districts, centred in Famagusta, Kyrenia, Lefka, Morphou, northern Nicosia, Trikomo, but since the 2018 election, voters have been able to vote for candidates in all districts, meaning that a voter in Nicosia can also vote for a candidate standing in Lefka or Trikomo should they wish to do so. The ruling coalition’s front bench at the legislature on Thursday In the mixed voting system, voters were not required to vote for candidates from all six districts, but were required to vote for a number of candidates corresponding to at least half…