Parliamentary elections were held in

Northern Cyprus Northern Cyprus ( tr, Kuzey Kıbrıs), officially the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC; tr, Kuzey Kıbrıs Türk Cumhuriyeti, ''KKTC''), is a ''de facto'' state that comprises the northeastern portion of the Geography of Cyprus, isl ...

on 15 December 2003.Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus: Legislative elections of 15 December 2003
Adam Carr Having come fourth in the 1998 elections, the

Republican Turkish Party The Republican Turkish Party ( tr, Cumhuriyetçi Türk Partisi, CTP) is a social democracy, social-democratic List of political parties in Northern Cyprus, political party in Northern Cyprus. The party was founded in 1970 by Ahmet Mithat Berberoğ ...

emerged as the largest party in the Assembly of the Republic, winning 19 of the 50 seats.

Electoral system

Northern Cyprus is divided into five constituencies, electing a total of 50 members of the Assembly by

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...

. Voters can cast as many votes in their district as there are seats.

Results

Aftermath

Under the Turkish Cypriot constitution, the members of the new parliament must gather to be sworn in 10 days after the results are officially published. Soon after this first session, President

Rauf Denktaş Rauf Raif Denktaş (27 January 1924 – 13 January 2012) was a Turkish Cypriot politician, barrister and jurist who served as the founding president of Northern Cyprus. He occupied this position as the president of the Turkish Republic of North ...

had to decide whom to ask building a government. As a result he asked

Mehmet Ali Talat Mehmet Ali Talat (born 6 July 1952) is a Turkish Cypriot politician who served as the president of Northern Cyprus from 2005 to 2010. Talat was the leader of the social democratic Republican Turkish Party ( tr, Cumhuriyetçi Türk Partisi, CTP) ...

of the

(CTP) to form the next government. Talat had 15 days to establish a coalition government. It was hard for him to build a government. The two blocs in the parliament, the "pro Annan plan" bloc and the "status quo" bloc, each had 25 seats in parliament. The

National Unity Party The National Unity Party, National United Party, Party of National Unity or National Unity Front may refer to: * National United Party of Afghanistan (founded 2003) * National Unity Party (Albania) * National United Party (Armenia), defunct * Natio ...

refused Talat's offer to build a government together, and as a result the only way to build a government for Talat was to get the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

(DP) to join his government. After some unsuccessful talks, the DP agreed to build a coalition with the CTP. As a result a coalition relying on a narrow majority of 26 out of 50 seats was built.

References

Elections in Northern Cyprus 2003 in Northern Cyprus 2000s in Cypriot politics December 2003 events in Europe {{Cyprus-election-stub