North Cyprus president to visit Turkey ahead of polls

Talat, who is seeking re-election against his main rival Prime Minister Derviş Eroğlu in the election on April 18, will meet with Turkey's President Abdullah Gül, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu.

Talat will discuss the recent developments regarding the Cyprus issue with Turkish officials, Turkish Cyprus spokesman Hasan Erçakıca told a press conference on Tuesday. He said ways to speed up the extensive settlement talks on the divided island would be also discussed during the meeting.

Talat, who is expected to return to Cyprus on Thursday, has been holding U.N. backed reunification talks with his Greek Cypriot counterpart, Dimitris Christofias, since September 2008.

With only six weeks left before the presidential election, a new poll showed Eroğlu 5.8 points ahead of his rival Talat. The poll carried out by the Cyprus Center for Social and Economic Research-KADEM with 1,786 participants showed that Eroğlu would receive 52.9 percent of the votes with Talat slightly narrowing the gap with 47.1 percent.

In another poll carried out by KADEM in October 2009, Eroğlu had 53.7 percent while Talat received 46.3 percent.

The outcome of the election is also critical for the ongoing settlement talks with the Greek Cypriot side aiming to find a lasting solution to the Cyprus issue.

Source: HurriyetDailyNews

16.03.2010