NICOSIA, 21 February 2005 — Turkish-Cypriot voters in breakaway northern Cyprus went to polls yesterday to try to elect a new government capable of breaking the political impasse sparked by failed efforts to reunite the island last year. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus has been deadlocked since last May when the ruling pro-settlement coalition lost its slim parliamentary majority, shortly after a UN reunification plan was rejected in a referendum.

Some 148,000 voters will elect 50 Parliament members from seven parties in the early polls. The election is likely to be a close race between the pro-UN plan party of Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Talat and the main nationalist opposition that rejects reunification on the basis of the blueprint.

Political commentators say the outcome of the vote is unlikely to change the stalemate in efforts to end the island’s 30-year-long division. “We need to take some steps (for a settlement) before Oct. 3,” said Talat as he cast his vote. His center-left Republican Turkish Party (CTP) is tipped to emerge as the largest single party from the polls.

The Cyprus question moved into a new phase last December when Turkey was given the green light to begin EU membership talks on Oct. 3, based on a set of tough conditions, including recognition of the Greek-Cypriot administration.

Ankara, which occupied the northern third of Cyprus in 1974 in response to a Greek-Cypriot coup seeking to unite the island with Greece, refuses to establish diplomatic ties with the Greek-Cypriots before a solution.

“We have the important task of creating the right atmosphere for Greek-Cypriots to voice their opposition to the UN plan and for the international community to persuade the Greek-Cypriots” to work for peace, said Talat.

Following the overwhelming Greek-Cypriot ‘no’ to the UN plan at a referendum last April, despite a Turkish Cypriot endorsement, only the internationally-recognized Greek-Cypriot south joined the European Union on May 1. Serdar Denktash, son of veteran Turkish-Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash and leader of Talat’s junior coalition partner, the Democrat Party, claimed that the elections would produce the future negotiating team for his community.

“Hopefully, the EU and the UN can convince (Cypriot President Tassos) Papadopoulos” to renewed peace talks, he said. Rauf Denktash, meanwhile, pledged he would work with the elected government for a “fair settlement, but on the basis of his statelet’s sovereignty.

But those going to the polls were divided over possible coexistence with their Greek Cypriot rivals after three decades of division. “I expect these elections to change the status quo, open up a bright future for us and pave the way for Turkish-Cypriots to enter the European Union,” said unemployed Nese Ates, 27, in Nicosia, Europe’s last divided capital.