North ‘parliament’ in crisis after failing to elect ‘speaker’

The north’s ‘parliament’ was in crisis on Monday night after spending all day failing to elect a ‘speaker’.

The ‘speakership’ was up for re-election following the beginning of a new legislative year in the north on Tuesday last week, with two ‘MPs’ from the north’s largest political party the UBP, incumbent ‘speaker’ Zorlu Tore and former ‘prime minister’ Faiz Sucuoglu having initially thrown their hat in the ring.

As such, an internal election of the party’s ‘MPs’ was called on Monday morning, with Tore winning that election by 13 votes to Sucuoglu’s 10 and thus being elected as the party’s nominee.

After the election, Sucuoglu was photographed leaving the ‘parliament’ building in its rear car park, and reportedly said he would “never come back”. He had served as ‘prime minister’ between November 2021 and May 2022 when he was ousted after failing to form a ruling coalition and has since remained on the back benches.

Tore was then officially nominated by UBP leader and ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel, with ‘MPs’ then taking part in a secret ballot to ratify his nomination.

However, while 23 ‘MPs’ voted to ratify him, 23 also voted against, with two abstentions, and as such he did not become ‘speaker’.

Ustel then nominated him again, with the second vote seeing 23 ‘MPs’ in favour, 24 against, and one abstention, with the UBP then deciding to have an internal party meeting and adjourning the ‘parliamentary’ session for 10 minutes.

After the meeting, Tore’s nomination went to a vote for a third time, with the number of votes against once again rising. 23 ‘MPs’ once again voted in favour of him, while 25 voted against, and one more abstained.

The same result was reached after the fourth round of voting, with Ustel then having the session adjourned again.

During the second adjournment, he held individual meetings with each of his ‘MPs’, while both inside and outside ‘parliament’, rumours swirled regarding the potential names of the members of ‘government’ parties who had voted against Tore.

This is because of the 50 seats in the north’s ‘parliament’, 29 are held by ruling coalition parties – 24 by the UBP, three by the DP, and two by the YDP. As such, for Tore to not be elected as ‘speaker’ it would require some members of those parties to vote against him.

One suspect was Hasan Tacoy, who had challenged Ustel for the UBP’s leadership and thus the office of the ‘prime minister’ at the party’s conference last month.

The logic was that after Tacoy had described the conference as “suspicious” after chaos had erupted during the voting there, he and his four close allies in ‘parliament’ – Yasemin Ozturk, Izlem Gurcag Altugra, Ali Pilli, and Hasan Kucuk – had all voted against Tore.

Mathematically, their votes would have reduced the ‘government’s’ figure from 29 to 24, and with Faiz Sucuoglu having left ‘parliament’ vowing to never return in the morning, one would land on the figure of 23.

However, Tacoy moved to dispel these rumours, telling news website Haber Kibris that he and his four allies had voted for Tore, adding, “we do not know who did not vote [for him]. The prime minister should decide why this situation came to pass by looking at his close friends.”

With Tore having been rejected by ‘MPs’ four times, the UBP then searched for a new candidate, eventually deciding Kutlu Evren.

Evren has held multiple ‘ministerial’ positions, most recently serving as ‘interior minister’ under ‘prime ministers’ Ersan Saner and Faiz Sucuoglu before being shuffled out and replaced by Unal Ustel in Sucuoglu’s post-election reshuffle in 2022.

However, when his name was put up for confirmation, some five and a half hours after Tore was rejected for the first time, he was rejected by a larger margin than Tore ever had been, with 22 ‘MPs’ voting in favour and 26 voting against.

At that point, legal advice had to be sought as it was initially unclear whether an ‘MP’ who is rejected by 26 or more of their peers for the ‘speakership’ is allowed to be nominated again during the same legislative year.

Retired former ‘auditor-general’ Emine Dizdarli weighed in on the matter, saying the north’s ‘parliament’s’ internal regulations state that firstly, an ‘MP’ who is rejected by 26 or more of their peers for the ‘speakership’ cannot be nominated again, and that secondly, there can be no more than five rounds of voting.

With this going on, things ground to a halt, with no further votes taking place on Monday evening.

News website Kibris Postasi reported that Hasan Tacoy’s ally and former ‘health minister’ Ali Pilli had ruled himself out of any bid for the ‘speakership’, and that fellow ally and fellow former ‘health minister’ Izlem Gurcag Altugra had said she had not been asked.

The next steps to be taken were obvious according to opposition party CTP leader Tufan Erhurman, who on Monday night called for ‘parliament’ to be immediately dissolved and for elections to be called.

“This movie is over. What needs to be done is to go back to the owner of the will of the people, and get their decision,” he said.

He described Monday’s events as a “serious disgrace”, and called on the Turkish Cypriot electorate to “engrave these events in your memories”.

The evening ended in circumstances befitting the bizarre day, with the ‘parliament’s’ advisory board attempting to convene to resolve the legal questions regarding the election of a new ‘speaker’ in the circumstances. However, it was unable to convene because Zorlu Tore, in a possible last defiant act as ‘speaker’, refused to allow it.

It had been Unal Ustel’s aim to convene the advisory board and effectively gain legal permission to nominate Kutlu Evren for a second time, with newspaper Yeni Duzen reporting that in doing this, he “encountered the obstacle of Zorlu Tore”.

Ustel had reportedly told UBP ‘MPs’, “either we will choose someone in one round, or I will do what is necessary. There has been enough disgrace here. We are also causing great shame to our party’s base.”

After the advisory board failed to convene, Ustel left the building, and shortly afterwards, it was announced that ‘parliament’ had been adjourned for 12 hours and would as such reconvene at 10am on Tuesday.