Supreme Election Board: Serdar Denktaş’s Claims of Bias Are Baseless and Groundless

The YSK announced that it had treated all political parties and candidates equally during the candidate selection and application process and had applied the relevant legal provisions.

In a written statement, the YSK also stressed that the remarks made by TAM Party Chairman Serdar Denktaş regarding the impartiality of the Supreme Election Board were entirely baseless and groundless.

The statement said Denktaş’s claim that a political party had failed to comply with the gender quota in its parliamentary candidate applications, and that none of the 15 candidates it had nominated was of a different gender, was also untrue.

The full written statement issued by the YSK on the matter reads as follows:

“The Supreme Election Board has found it necessary to issue a statement in response to the remarks made by the Chairman of the Social Justice and Struggle Party, Mr Serdar Denktaş, at his press conference dated 1 November 2026.

The candidates nominated by political parties for the 6 December 2026 Early General Election for the Parliamentary Elections were submitted to the Supreme Election Board on 30 October 2026 and made public in the Board’s Announcement No. 15. The lists clearly show the candidates nominated by each party.

The claim made by the Chairman of the Social Justice and Struggle Party, Mr Serdar Denktaş, that a political party failed to comply with the gender quota stipulated in the Political Parties Law No. 49/2015 in its candidate applications for the parliamentary elections, and that none of the 15 candidates nominated was of a different gender, is untrue.

The Supreme Election Board decided to exclude the list of the Social Justice and Struggle Party from the election on the grounds that it failed to comply with the gender quota in its candidate applications for the Girne District and the Lapta-Alsancak-Çamlıbel Municipality Municipal Council. In reaching this decision, the Board followed its precedent ruling No. 114/2022 in the same direction. The decision was based on non-compliance with the provision set out in Article 28, Paragraph 1 of the Political Parties Law No. 49/2015, which requires at least 30 per cent of nominated candidates to be of a different gender.

Of the 14 municipal council members to be nominated in the relevant municipality, at least 30 per cent amounts to 4.2. Based on the wording ‘at least’ in the Law, the minimum number of candidates required to be of a different gender must therefore be five. It is clear that nominating only four candidates of a different gender would bring the percentage below the minimum 30 per cent quota stipulated by the Law.

The Supreme Election Board has treated all political parties and candidates equally throughout the candidate selection and application process and has applied the legal provisions. The statements made by Mr Serdar Denktaş regarding the impartiality of the Supreme Election Board are entirely baseless and groundless.”