"Not another election? Voter apathy grips the north
By Simon Bahceli
VOTER apathy, disillusionment with politicians and confusion over policies could lead to the lowest turnout in years in next month�s general election in the north.
Turkish Cypriots go to the polls on February 20, making it their third vote in just over a year. In December last year, a general election saw current �prime minister� Mehmet Ali Talat elected in to office, followed by the referendum on the Annan plan in April. Now they will be voting on whether to keep Talat in office after just one year in the job.
Talat lost his �parliamentary� majority in April last year, but managed to hang on to power until the assembly�s failure to ratify the budget forced him to resign last autumn.
Adding to the general feeling of election fatigue, Turkish Cypriots will be at the polls again in April to elect a new �president�.
�People are fed up with having elections every few months,� says political analyst Mete Hatay in his north Nicosia office. �They want some kind of normality in their lives.�
Hatay believes voters are convinced little will change after February�s election and that public awareness of this means people see little reason to vote.
Indeed, an extensive opinion poll carried out in December pointed to a repeat of the December 2003 result, which saw seats in the 50-deputy �parliament� equally divided between those for and against reunification of the island. "
More:Not another election? Voter apathy grips the north
