Mustafa Akıncı, a former MP for the TDP, came second with 27%, while Sibel Siber of the CTP and the independent candidate Kudret Özersay won 22.5% and 21% respectively.
Mehmet Ali Talat then challenged Prime Minister Yorgancıoğlu for the leadership of the CTP; this was owing in part to the poor performance of the party in the presidential race.
Since only MPs may serve in the Cabinet of Northern Cyprus, Talat did not become prime minister; the position ultimately went to Ömer Kalyoncu, who was sworn in on 16 July 2015.
His administration was short-lived, however; Hüseyin Özgürgün managed to establish a right-wing coalition on 16 April 2016, consisting of the DP of Serdar Denktaş—son of the TRNC's pater patriae, Rauf Denktaş—and the UBP.
[10] Tözün Tunalı's Social Democrat Party, and a fraction from the CTP led by Sonay Adem, had previously joined with TKP-YG.
These candidates included Özgürgün himself, as well as Özdemir Berova and Hakan Dinçyürek who were serving at the time as independent MPs, having been previously elected from the DP list.
[15] In the run-up to the election, the government's practice of accepting numerous people into citizenship and delivering land titles was criticised as corrupt.
Özgürgün countered these accusations by saying that these were practices carried out by previous governments as well and that the Republic of Cyprus actually bestowed citizenship in return for money.
He proposed a policy of opening Varosha, a ghost quarter of the city of Famagusta that is subject to intercommunal negotiations, under Turkish Cypriot control.
Core policies include the provision of electricity from Turkey to Northern Cyprus via cables under the Mediterranean Sea, increased cooperation with Turkey in searching for natural gas and oil, instituting a general health insurance system, expanding the Ercan Airport, reforming local administrations and building five new hospitals in five districts.
[22] During the campaign, Özgürgün was the subject of controversy after the revelation of his financial details as part of his ongoing divorce case with his wife and his affair with another woman.
His wife's lawyer stated that Özgürgün had bought two luxurious cars for his lover, and demanded that these should be included in the division of properties during the divorce.
Those who did not sign up to become candidates in the 2018 election included four former prime ministers: Ferdi Sabit Soyer, Sibel Siber, Özkan Yorgancıoğlu and Ömer Kalyoncu.
[26] One of the candidates picked by Erhürman, Fikri Toros, had been serving at the time as the head of the Turkish Cypriot Chamber of Commerce and had made statements on the economy espousing a liberal position.
[20] Erhürman promised "social transformation" and "a change of the established order", calling the Özgürgün cabinet the most corrupt of all UBP governments in power to date.
[31] Core policies proposed by the party included the establishment of a health insurance system, the extension of doctors' working hours at public healthcare services, state-subsidised housing projects, increases in benefits, restrictions on property being rented in more stable foreign currency, the introduction of new laws for the accountability of politicians, a new citizenship law, renegotiating the free movement protocol with Turkey to prevent the entry of those with criminal record in Turkey into Northern Cyprus, the opening of Varosha under Turkish Cypriot control, the introduction of a public transport system and night buses and additional anti-corruption measures.
[47] Kıbrıs stated that the government formation process would yield either a three-party coalition of the UBP with two of the smaller parties or a re-run of the election.