The June 1985 elections were held in a new context after the unilateral proclamation of independence, of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus – Kuzey Kıbrıs Türk Cumhuriyeti – KKTC, on 15 November 1983. The proclamation was condemned by the international community and the new polity was recognized only by Turkey. On 5 May 1985, a constitution was approved in a referendum, and on 9 June 1985, two weeks before the parliamentary elections, presidential elections were held, in which Rauf Denktaş emerged victorious with 70.2%.
The National Unity Party – UBP contested the election with a new leader since December 1983, Dr. Derviş Eroğlu. The conservative Democratic People’s Party – DHP and the two left parties, the Communal Liberation Party – TKP and the Republican Turkish Party – CTP were also competing. New parties also emerged: The Social Democratic Party – Sosyal Demokrat Partisi (SDP) led by a five-member presidium, including Rauf Denktaş’s son Raif – emerged on 30 December 1982. The settler parties Turkish Unity Party – TBP, which was founded in 1976, and the smaller party, the National Turkish Party – Milliyetçi Turk Partisi – MTP, founded in December 1982 by Ismail Tezer (one of the founders of the TBP), merged in May 1984 and formed the Renaissance Party – Yeni Doğuş Partisi. Two months later, Irsen Küçük founded another conservative party, the Community Progress Party – Toplumcu Atılım Partisi (TAP).
Seven parties claimed the votes of about 95,000 voters, of whom 12,045 (12.6%) chose to abstain from the polls, while 3364 cast an invalid ballot. We note also that the seats in the new entity increased from 40 to 50. The National Unity Party – UBP suffered further losses compared to the previous contests, securing 36.8%, while the TKP lost almost half of its votes and was reduced from 28.5% down to 15.8%, while the Republican Turkish Party – CTP increased its share to 21.4%. The performance of the other parties was also noticeable, with the exception of Denktaş’s son Social Democratic Party – SDP which was limited down to 3.8%. The Community Progress Party – TAP received 6.1%, the Democratic People’s Party – DHP, 7.4% and the Renaissance Party – YDP 8.8%. Due to the high electoral threshold, only the latter of the small parties, the Renaissance Party of settlers, secured parliamentary seats.
The distribution of votes by group of communities, based on their population composition presents the following picture:
The National Unity Party – UBP secured its highest percentages in the city of Nicosia (41.2%), in the traditional Turkish Cypriot communities (40.4%) and in communities with Turkish Cypriots from the south (39.4%). The high competition in communities with non-mixed settler population (30% + group) was won by the Renaissance settlers party – YDP, with almost half of the vote (47.4%). The UBP was limited there to 21.4%, followed by the DHP with 11.6%, while the two left-wing parties TKP and CTP, as well as the Social Democratic Party of Raif Rauf Denktaş, remained stuck below 6% in settler communities.