"Turkish Cypriots to go to polls
by Odul Asik Ulker in Nicosia
17feb05
TURKISH Cypriots will elect a government for their breakaway state on Sunday but the political deadlock gripping the community amid failures to reunite the island is unlikely to ease before presidential polls in April.
The self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) was forced to call early elections after the ruling coalition lost its slim majority in May and subsequent efforts to stitch together a stable government failed.
But opinion polls predict Sunday's elections will produce as fragmented a political picture as at the last general elections in December 2003, fanning trepidation of persistent uncertainty in the isolated statelet."
More:Herald Sun: Turkish Cypriots to go to polls [17feb05]
