Opposition ‘illegally occupying’ north ‘parliament’
Opposition ‘MPs’ are “illegally occupying” the north’s ‘parliament’, ruling coalition party UBP ‘MP’ Ziya Ozturkler said on Tuesday, continuing to insist that he has been elected as ‘speaker’.
Speaking to Kibris Postasi TV, he claimed that ballot papers had been stamped multiple times and declared valid in all 15 rounds of voting for a ‘speaker’ which took place last month, negating the opposition’s claim that ballot papers stamped multiple times in the last round were invalid.
He then claimed that “all opinions suddenly changed” when ‘MPs’ travelled to Turkey last month for the latest hearing into the collapse of the Isias hotel in Adiyaman which killed 35 Cypriots, though opposition ‘MPs’ had objected to his and the ruling coalition’s claims he had been elected on the night the vote took place.
He added, “the question they wanted to ask the lawyers was not even written down. There was a process whereby it was not clear who asked the question, who wrote it down, how it was asked, or what the answer was.”
On the matter of the legality or otherwise of the vote, he said it would be unprecedented for elections inside ‘parliament’ to be held to the standards of regular elections.
“Where in parliament were the normal election laws applied? Was the stamp used compliant with normal election laws? Were the ballot papers compliant with normal election laws? Were our entrances and exists compliant with normal election laws? None of these standards were applied,” he said.
For the first time since October 18, both the ruling coalition and the opposition agreed that ‘parliament’ was in session on Tuesday.
The ruling coalition insisted that ‘deputy speaker’ and opposition party CTP ‘MP’ Fazilet Ozdenefe opened ‘parliament’ deputising for Ozturkler, who had been declared ‘acting president’ with Tatar in Kyrgyzstan, and the opposition insisting that she is the only person who has the right to open parliament.
As such, the first argument of the day was over whether the session was the eighth or the ninth since the legislative year began on October 1, with the “extra” session having been convened by Ozturkler last week, and the opposition considering it null and void.
Ozdenefe declared she had opened the eighth session of the year and ruling coalition ‘MPs’ immediately threatened to leave the chamber. The problem was then resolved, to an extent, by Ozdenefe saying she had opened “the eighth session according to the CTP and the ninth according to the UBP”.
UBP deputy leader Sunat Atun was the first to speak, describing Ozdenefe’s convening of ‘parliament’ on Monday as “unlawful”, and saying his party “invites everyone to stand on the ground of law and the constitution”.
“If it will not be recorded in the minutes that this is the ninth session, it is out of the question for the UBP to be party to or comply with this attempt to usurp the order of things,” he added.
CTP leader Tufan Erhurman then spoke, drawing attention to comments made by Ozturkler in the day regarding the opinions of the three ‘parliamentary’ lawyers, who all declared that Ozturkler had not been elected ‘speaker’.
Ozturkler had described the lawyers’ opinions as “three apples which fell from the sky”, insinuating that the lawyers had been put up to declaring that Ozturkler had not been elected by the CTP, with Erhurman responding by saying, “I will tell him this to his face, but this is rudeness. First of all, it is a lie.
“It is a complete lie. The rudeness is not that he lied about us, but that he accused the lawyers … It is first of all a lie, we were not aware of it in advance, and it is unfair to the people who work in this parliament. I have never seen such a liar in my life.”
He also responded to Ozturkler’s claims that there was no need for ‘speaker’ elections to comply with normal election law in the north.
“Is there anything in the internal regulations which expressly states that if something is done, the vote will be invalid? The internal regulations state that one stamp must be put inside the box. Is there a provision which says a ballot paper cannot be folded like an aeroplane or a boat or that it cannot be stamped with sugar or Dubai chocolate? No,” he said.
He added, “what happens if a ballot paper is folded wrong? It is counted as invalid, because that would be a violation of the principle of the secret ballot and open counting.”
More to follow…