Kudret Özersay

A leftist moderate promising to press for a peace deal in ethnically-split Cyprus swept to victory in the presidential election run-off in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) on April 26.

A leftist moderate promising to press for a peace deal in ethnically-split Cyprus swept to victory in the presidential election run-off in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) on April 26.

Voters in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus went to the polls on April 26 to choose a new president in an election runoff that could speed UN-brokered reunification talks.

The incumbent president, Dervi? Ero?lu, and independent candidate Mustafa Ak?nc? gained the most votes in the first round but both failed to reach the 50 percent benchmark on April 19.

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.