Tufan Erhürman

Tufan Erhürman
Prime Minister of Northern Cyprus
In office 2 February 2018 – 22 May 2019
President	Mustafa Akıncı
Deputy	Kudret Özersay
Preceded by	Hüseyin Özgürgün
Succeeded by	Ersin Tatar
Leader of the Republican Turkish Party
Incumbent
Assumed office 13 November 2016
Preceded by	Mehmet Ali Talat
Member of the Assembly of Republic
Incumbent
Assumed office 28 July 2013
Constituency	Lefkoşa (2013, 2018)
Personal details
Born	1970 (age 53–54) Nicosia, Cyprus
Political party	Republican Turkish Party
Spouse	Nilden Bektaş Erhürman
Alma mater	Ankara University (PhD)
Website	www.tufanerhurman.com

Tufan Erhürman (born 1970) is a Turkish Cypriot academic, lawyer, diplomat and a former Prime Minister of Northern Cyprus. A scholar in public law by profession, he served in the negotiations to solve the Cyprus dispute between 2008 and 2010. He previously worked for the Ministry of Justice of Turkey between 1999 and 2004 and worked for the establishment of the position of ombudsman in Turkey. He is the current leader of Republican Turkish Party. He held the office of Prime Minister beginning January 2018 as the leader of a four-party coalition. The coalition government resigned on 9 May 2019, with Erhürman continuing as Prime Minister until the office was taken over by Ersin Tatar on 22 May 2019.

Education

Erhürman finished his secondary education in Türk Maarif Koleji. He was then enrolled to study law at Ankara University in 1988. He received his master's degree and doctorate from Ankara University as well. His 2001 PhD thesis was on the "Non-Juridical Inspection of the Authority and the Ombdusman".

Academic career

Erhürman lectured on public law at the Ankara University, Middle East Technical University and Hacettepe University between 1995 and 2001. He then lectured at the Eastern Mediterranean University from 2001 to 2006, and from 2008 to 2013. Erhürman also lectured at the Near East University between the years of 2006 and 2008.

Political career

Erhürman became involved in the negotiations to solve the Cyprus dispute under President Mehmet Ali Talat between 2008 and 2010.

He ran for a Nicosia seat at the Assembly of the Republic in the 2013 elections and became a Member of Parliament as a candidate of the Republican Turkish Party-United Forces. He worked extensively to change the constitution where 23 changes were agreed by all 4 parties which were being represented in the parliament at that time. However, 62.3% of the voters rejected the new constitution in the 2014 referendum. He became the Secretary General of the Republican Turkish Party-United Forces.

On 13 November 2016, Erhürman became the leader of the Republican Turkish Party and thus of the main opposition.

He was reelected as a Member of the Parliament during the 2018 snap elections, however he could not prevent his party from losing 9 seats. On 19 January 2018, negotiations started to form a coalition between 4 parties, the Republican Turkish Party, the People's Party, the Democratic Party and the Communal Democracy Party, ultimately succeeding in the formation of the Erhürman cabinet.

Electoral history

2020 Northern Cypriot presidential election

Candidate		Party	First round		Second round
			Votes	%	Votes	%
	Ersin Tatar	National Unity Party	35,825	32.35	67,322	51.69
	Mustafa Akıncı	Independent	33,053	29.84	62,910	48.31
	Tufan Erhürman	Republican Turkish Party	24,008	21.68
	Kudret Özersay	Independent	6,356	5.74
	Erhan Arıklı	Rebirth Party	5,937	5.36
	Serdar Denktaş	Independent	4,653	4.20
	Fuat Türköz Çiner	Nationalist Democracy Party	327	0.30
	Arif Salih Kırdağ	Independent	282	0.25
	Alpan Uz	Independent	156	0.14
	Ahmet Boran	Independent	83	0.07
	Mustafa Ulaş	Independent	69	0.06
Total			110,749	100.00	130,232	100.00
Valid votes			110,749	95.66	130,232	97.24
Invalid/blank votes			5,027	4.34	3,699	2.76
Total votes			115,776	100.00	133,931	100.00
Registered voters/turnout			198,867	58.22	199,029	67.29
Source: Kibris Online, Kibris Online