Polling begins in TRNC presidential election

Polling began on Sunday morning for the first round of the presidential election in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC).

The TRNC citizens, who began voting at 8 am (0500GMT), can vote until 6 pm (1500GMT) at 777 polling stations established across the country.

The TRNC has 218,313 eligible voters.

Incumbent President Ersin Tatar is running as an independent candidate, while Tufan Erhurman, leader of the main opposition Republican Turkish Party (CTP), is contesting as his party's candidate.

Mehmet Hasguler, Arif Salih Kirdag, Ahmet Boran, and Ibrahim Yazici are running as independent candidates, while Osman Zorba is representing the Cyprus Socialist Party.

Huseyin Gurlek, who was also expected to run for the election and whose name is placed on the ballot, announced on Saturday that he withdrew his candidacy in favor of Ersin Tatar.

A candidate will be elected president in the first round if they receive more than 50% of the vote (an absolute majority).

If no candidate achieves an absolute majority, the top two candidates receiving the most votes in the first round will advance to the second round, to be held within seven days.

The candidate receiving the highest number of votes in the second round will assume the presidential seat.