Split-ticket voting in the north has been abolished for the second time following a majority decision by the Turkish Cypriot “parliament” during an extraordinary session on Thursday, September 10.
The change means voters will no longer be able to select candidates from different parties on the same ballot in December’s “parliamentary elections”. They will retain the right to choose between candidates standing for the same party.
Turkish Cypriot media described the decision as a fundamental change to the “electoral” system following years of debate. Kıbrıs Postası reported that one of its most controversial practices had now passed into history after an amendment to the “elections and referendums bill”.
Parties set out their positions
Turkish Cypriot “prime minister” Ünal Üstel rejected opposition criticism that the amendment had been introduced shortly before the “parliamentary elections”.
He said the proposal had first been submitted to “parliament” in 2023 and was later withdrawn for consultations with the Republican Turkish Party, CTP.
Üstel noted that 41% of split-ticket ballots cast in the 2022 elections were declared invalid, adding that the “supreme electoral council” had also recommended abolishing the system.
He said the main objective was “to ensure that the will of the voter is accurately reflected at the ballot box”.
Rebirth Party leader Erhan Arıklı said that although split-ticket voting theoretically offered voters a wider range of choices, it had gradually become a practice that “pollutes political life and casts a shadow over elections”.
He argued that political parties were the main actors in democratic countries and that governments were formed according to party programmes, while the mixed voting system had become a “vote-gathering mechanism”.
CTP leader Sıla Usar İncirli criticised the “government” for bringing the amendment forward three years after it was first proposed and only three months before the elections.
She said electoral systems should not be shaped according to personal or political needs, and that amendments should instead strengthen parliamentary democracy and political institutions.
Such significant changes should be made with the agreement of all political parties and over a longer period, she added.
System introduced in 1976
The mixed voting system was first used in the north during the “parliamentary elections” of June 20, 1976.
It was abolished in 1990, after 14 years, while the National Unity Party, UBP, was again in power. Split-ticket voting returned for the elections held on December 6, 1998 and remained in place until Thursday’s decision.
The option will therefore not be available in the “parliamentary elections” on December 6, which will be held alongside the “local elections”.
Source: CNA
