Turkish Cypriot ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel on Monday said his ‘government’ is to begin “serious work” to allow Turkish Cypriots abroad to vote in the north’s elections.

Speaking during an event in London, he said bills to change the north’s electoral law would be drawn up “in the near future”, and said he and his ‘government’ will “take every step to ensure Turkish Cypriots’ living abroad have democratic rights”.

His comments came after shipping company Euromed director Hasan Gazi, who is himself a Turkish Cypriot living in London, had asked at the event that Turkish Cypriots living abroad be given the right to vote.

“Restricting TRNC citizens in the UK’s right to vote makes it difficult for Turkish Cypriots to make their voices heard on national issues. This situation could weaken the diaspora’s ties to Cyprus,” he said.

At present, only Turkish Cypriots living permanently in the north and people working in official Turkish Cypriot missions abroad have the right to vote in the north’s elections, with there having been exactly 210,121 people registered to vote in the north at the last count ahead of a ‘parliamentary’ by-election in 2023.

Were Turkish Cypriots abroad to be afforded the vote in Turkish Cypriot elections, future election results could be decisively changed by the diaspora, such is its size.

The British parliament’s home affairs committee estimated in 2011 that there were 300,000 Turkish Cypriots living in the United Kingdom at the time, with Turkey’s scientific and technological research council (Tubitak) having estimated that 500,000 Turkish Cypriots live in Turkey and 120,000 live in Australia.

Citizens of the Republic of Turkey living abroad have been afforded the vote since the 1950s, with the country having initially set up ballot boxes at border crossings and international airports to allow people to briefly return to the country to cast their vote before leaving.

Turkish embassies and consulates have since begun to allow people to vote in their countries of residence, with a total of 3.2 million citizens of the Republic of Turkey now living abroad registered as voters.

At the last Turkish presidential and parliamentary elections in 2023, exactly 140,111 Turkish citizens living in the north had the right to vote

Around 59 per cent of Turkish citizens living abroad voted for incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the 2023 presidential election – a higher figure than the overall 52 per cent.

The next Turkish Cypriot leadership election will take place in October, while the north’s next ‘parliamentary’ election must take place at some point before February 2027.