Supreme Election Council rejects Serdar Denktaş's claims of bias in candidate process

The Supreme Election Council (YSK) of Northern Cyprus said it was equidistant from all political parties and candidates during the candidate nomination and application process, and that it applied the legal rules. The council stressed that statements by TAM Party leader Serdar Denktaş about the council's impartiality were completely baseless and unfounded.

In a written statement, the YSK said Denktaş's claim that a party's parliamentary candidacy applications did not meet the gender quota, and that the 15 candidates listed were not of a different gender, was untrue. The council said the Toplumsal Adalet ve Mücadele Party's candidate list for the Lapta-Alsancak-Çamlıbel Municipality council in Girne district was excluded from the election because it did not meet the at least 30 percent gender quota set out in Article 28(1) of Law No. 49/2015 on Political Parties.

The statement said that of the 14 municipal council candidates, at least 30 percent (a minimum of five) had to be of a different gender, and that showing only four would fall below the quota. Political parties submitted their candidate applications to the YSK on 30 October 2026 for the 6 December 2026 early parliamentary general election. The candidates were published in the YSK's Announcement No. 15.