Tufan Erhurman, the leader of the Republican Turkish Party (CTP), has won the presidential election in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) with 62.76 percent of the vote, according to preliminary results announced by the electoral authority on Sunday evening.
Erhurman defeated incumbent President Ersin Tatar, who received 35.81 percent of the vote.
Voter turnout in the presidential election was 64.87 percent, the Supreme Election Board of Northern Cyprus said.
Following the election results, Erhurman said: “Foreign policy will naturally be conducted in close consultation with Türkiye—let there be no doubt about that.”
Türkiye congratulates Erhurman victory
Responding to the election results, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan congratulated Tufan Erhurman on his victory in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus presidential election.
“I hope this election, in which our Turkish Cypriot brothers expressed their will through the ballot box, will be beneficial for our countries and the region,” Erdogan said.
Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz also said: “The elections have demonstrated the maturity of the TRNC as a state and of its voters. As the motherland and guarantor country, we will continue to stand by the TRNC.”
Earlier, voting for the presidential election began on Sunday morning, with voters casting ballots from 8 am (0500GMT) to 6 pm (1500GMT) at 777 polling stations across the country. The TRNC has 218,313 eligible voters.
Incumbent President Ersin Tatar ran as an independent candidate, while Tufan Erhurman, leader of the main opposition Republican Turkish Party (CTP), contested as his party’s nominee.
Mehmet Hasguler, Arif Salih Kirdag, Ahmet Boran, and Ibrahim Yazici also ran as independents, while Osman Zorba represented the Cyprus Socialist Party.
Huseyin Gurlek, whose name appeared on the ballot, had initially planned to run but withdrew his candidacy on Saturday in support of Ersin Tatar.
Who is Tufan Erhurman?
The newly elected president of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus was born in Lefkosa and completed his secondary education at Turkish Maarif College in 1988.
He received his law degree from Ankara University in 1992 and worked as a research assistant in the Department of Administrative Law, teaching courses at Ankara University, Hacettepe University, and Middle East Technical University. He earned his doctorate with a thesis on non-judicial oversight and the Ombudsman System.
Erhurman later served on drafting commissions for Türkiye’s Ombudsman Institution Law and joined the law faculties of Eastern Mediterranean University and Near East University, where he also served as deputy dean at EMU’s law faculty.
In 2005, he was part of the negotiation team that established the Immovable Property Commission under then-President Mehmet Ali Talat.
He was elected Lefkosa MP for the Republican Turkish Party (CTP) in 2013, earned the title of associate professor of law in 2014, and was named CTP secretary-general in 2015. Erhurman was elected party leader in 2016 and served as prime minister of the quadruple coalition government formed in 2018.
Fluent in English, Erhurman is married with one child.
Türkiye’s guarantor role
Upon his election victory, Erhurman reaffirmed that the TRNC’s foreign policy would be conducted in close consultation with Türkiye, stressing that “no one should doubt this.”
He framed Türkiye not only as the indispensable guarantor of the island’s security but also as the essential partner in diplomacy and external relations.
Emphasising national unity, Erhurman declared that “our brotherhood has won,” and insisted there were no losers in the election—only a collective victory for the Turkish Cypriot people.
Erhurman has consistently underlined the centrality of Türkiye’s role in the security of Cyprus, describing Ankara’s guarantor status as indispensable for the Turkish Cypriot community.
He has argued recently that the question of Türkiye’s guarantorship is no longer up for debate, pointing to the military presence of France, Israel, and the United States in the south as evidence that abandoning this arrangement is impossible.
