Turkish Cypriot President assigns UBP head to form new gov’t

NICOSIA

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Turkish Cypriot President Mustafa Akıncı has assigned National Unity Party (UBP) Chairman Hüseyin Özgürgün to form a new government, only a few days after the former government collapsed due to the UBP withdrawing from a coalition with the Republican Turkish Party-United Forces (CTP-BG). 

Özgürgün received the mandate to form a new government of Turkish Cyprus after holding talks with Akıncı on April 8. 

Akıncı said he wished for a government to be established swiftly and thus had held talks with the heads of the parties in the parliament right after he received the resignation of the former government from Prime Minister Ömer Kalyoncu on April 5. 

Özgürgün, speaking after receiving the mandate from Akıncı, said that he would hold talks with all political parties in the parliament and would, in a week’s time, present a new cabinet list to the president. 

The UBP last year formed a coalition government with CTP-BG on July 15, 2015, under Kalyoncu. The move came after former Prime Minister Özkan Yorgancıoğlu stepped down on July 4, 2015, after losing a party leadership vote in June.

Özgürgün said April 2 that the UBP had decided unanimously to withdraw from the government due to its inability to address the country’s economic problems and a recent move to pay civil servants’ salaries in installments.