Parliamentary elections take place in Cyprus

21/05/2006

NICOSIA, Cyprus -- Cyprus held parliamentary elections on Sunday (21 May), its first since becoming an EU member in May 2004. A total of 500,606 eligible voters in the Greek-run part of the divided island will be choosing from among 474 candidates for the 56-seat legislature. Technically, the Cyprus Parliament must have 80 deputies, including representatives of the Turk Cypriots; however, this provision has not been applied since the constitutional crisis of 1963.

The elections mark the first time since the division of Cyprus that ethnic Turks living in the southern part -- numbering around 266 -- are being allowed to vote. A Turkish Cypriot poet, Neshe Yashin, is running for a parliamentary seat in Nicosia, on the centrist United Democrats ticket. (Darik - 21/05/06; ERT, ANA - 20/05/06)