Incumbent Turkish Cypriot president to seek re-election

LEFKOSA, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus

The current president of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) announced Wednesday that he will contest the 2020 presidential election to be held on April 26.

Mustafa Akinci told reporters in the capital Lefkosa that he will run as an independent candidate.

The 72-year-old leader said the most reasonable solution to the decade-long divided Mediterranean island was a bi-communal, bipartite federation.

The best solution to the Cyprus issue “is a solution…based on political equality, where both sides will take part in the decisions and the rotating presidency will take place,” he added.

Akinci was elected as the fourth president of the TRNC in April 2015.

Born in 1947 in Limassol, a city on the southern coast of Greek-administered Cyprus, Akinci is an architecture graduate from one of Turkey’s most prestigious universities, the Middle East Technical University. He was part of the “constituent assembly” in Northern Cyprus established in 1975.

Akinci was the mayor of Lefkosa for 14 years between 1976 and 1990.

He was the leader of the Communal Liberation Party between 1987 and 2001 and was a lawmaker for parliament between 1993 and 2009.

The Turkish Cypriot leader was deputy premier and minister of tourism between 1999 and 2001.

Apart from Akinci, four politicians have announced their candidacy so far: Prime Minister Ersin Tatar from the National Unity Party, Foreign Minister Kudret Ozersay as an independent candidate, main opposition Republican Turkish Party leader Tufan Erhurman and the leader of the Rebirth Party, Erhan Arikli.

Turkish Cypriots will go to the polls for the 10th time since 1974 to elect a president.

In 1974, following a coup aiming at Cyprus’s annexation by Greece, Ankara had to intervene as a guarantor power. In 1983, the TRNC was founded.

The decades since have seen several attempts to resolve the Cyprus dispute, all failing.

The latest one, held with the participation of the guarantor countries -- Turkey, Greece and the U.K. -- came to an end without any progress in 2017 in Switzerland.