North Cyprus cauldron boiling

The combined vote of the two leading candidates in April 19's inconclusive first round of voting in the Turkish Cypriot presidential race hardly made up 55 percent of the valid votes. Incumbent Dr. Dervi? Ero?lu came first in the race with 28.2 percent of the vote, while a candidate making a late comeback to politics, Mustafa Ak?nc?, came next with 26.9 percent. Both were independent candidates, but were also backed by three political parties. The second runner-up was Parliament Speaker Dr. Sibel Siber, the candidate of the ruling socialists. The fourth on the list of losers was the only "winner" of the vote, an independent candidate with no political party supporting him, Kudret Özersay, the former Turkish Cypriot negotiator in the intercommunal talks and a newcomer to politics, who scored almost as well as any of the parties. He received over 21 percent of the vote. These figures show there will be a runoff vote April 26 to elect the president of the Turkish Cypriot state.

What do these figures indicate? Was there a message sent when 38 percent of Turkish Cypriots preferred to go on a picnic or stay at home on election day, making the presidential vote the least-ever participated in elections in northern Cyprus? If there was, to who was that message addressed? If the combined vote of the two leading conservative parties, with Ero?lu's vote hardly producing 28.2 percent of electoral support, and an independent newcomer to politics alone tallied 21.2 percent of the vote, was there not a clear defeat? Particularly if the combined vote of these two parties exceeded 50 percent in last year's mayoral elections, why was there a sharp decline in Ero?lu's vote? Was it not he who was straight elected in the 2010 vote, leaving socialist Mehmet Ali Talat in the ballot...