Hardliner Dervis Eroglu won the Turkish Cypriot presidential poll on Sunday, official results showed, in a result which could jeopardise UN-brokered peace talks to reunify the Mediterranean island.
With 100 percent of votes counted, right-wing National Unity Party (UBP) chief Eroglu, 72, who has served several terms as premier, won 50.38 percent of the vote, while incumbent Mehmet Ali Talat secured 42.85 percent.
Eroglu’s triumph was greeted by an explosion of joy among his supporters outside UBP headquarters in northern Nicosia, as fireworks crackled in the night sky.
Eroglu has for years favoured a two-state solution, which is vehemently rejected by the Greek Cypriots.
The electoral commission in the self-declared breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) put turnout at a high 75 percent.
A total of 164,072 people, of a 250,000-population, were registered as voters in the TRNC.
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