The north ‘government’ granted five additional ‘TRNC citizenships’ just hours before the start of the official pre-election restriction period, Turkish Cypriot media reported on Sunday.

According to Turkish Cypriot daily Yeni Düzen, the latest batch of ‘citizenships’ was approved by the tripartite coalition ‘government’ and published in the ‘official gazette’ at around 6pm on Saturday evening.

This brought the total number of ‘citizenships’ granted within a 24-hour period to 129, with 124 of them having been issued the previous day.

The move comes just before the implementation of pre-election restrictions, which took effect at midnight as part of the lead-up to the October vote.

The issue of ‘exceptional citizenships’ in the north has long been a source of political controversy, particularly when issued in the run-up to elections in an effort to gain more votes.