Cypriot elections, Jan 2018

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Both governments in Cyprus will have elections in January. On the 7th, Northern Cyprus will have a parliamentary election, where moderate and pro-reunification President (the "country" has a semi-presidential system) Mustafa Akıncı will hope for a new government more satisfactory to his aims. Currently the region is led by a relatively pro-Turk coalition of the National Unity Party (traditional party of government, led by PM Hüseyin Özgürgün) and the Democratic Party (former breakaway of the former party, had a great result last election), with the opposition being centre left pro-unity CTP.

It's been a bit of a turbulent parliamentary term, starting out as a CTP-DP coalition, which collapsed after CTP flubbed the Presidential election/party leadership challenge, led to a brief grand coalition which also sputtered and collapsed and finally ended up with the current UBP-DP government.

The other two relevant parties are President Akinci's old party, the centre-left TDP and newcomer anti-corruption outfit HP (which briefly led the polls when it started, but has stabilized around 15 percent in the polls). Oh yeah, in terms of polling the UBP has regained a bit of support (although nowhere near their old levels) mainly by eating into DP,  which has collapsed to threshold levels. CtP also doing dire (with a bit of criticism from their left flank for moving in a more neoliberal direction). TDP have received a healthy boost, but HP have truly been the beneficiaries of the surge.

I haven't really talked about the Big Issue At Hand, but eh.

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Very poor election for almost all parties - DP in historically awful position (but, hey at least they survived), HP/TDP/YPG underperformance and disastrous result for CTP.

Bad result for pro-unification people as well (like President Akinci), with Turk Nationalists having a majority. (DP were technically pro-nationalist, but were willing to play moderates). Horrednous turnout as well, suggesting a lot of disillusionment. Only reasonable government is UBP+DP+YDP, although DP may be the weak link in such a coalition.

First disapointing election of 2018 everyone! (unless you're an Erdogan fan)