Pro-reunification candidate Tufan Erhurman was on Sunday elected as Turkish Cypriot leader, unseating pro-two-state solution incumbent Ersin Tatar and winning a record number of votes in an unprecedented landslide victory.

Erhurman, a 55-year-old law professor who has served in the Turkish Cypriot legislature since 2013, is the leader of centre-left party the CTP – a position from which he will be required to resign in the coming days thanks to the Turkish Cypriots’ strict rules regarding political party affiliation for their leaders.

He will formally take up the role of Turkish Cypriot leader later this week, having won a massive 62.8 per cent of the vote to Tatar’s 35.8 per cent, and is expected to bring to an end a five-year period in which the Turkish Cypriot side refused to engage in negotiations to solve the Cyprus problem based on the previously agreed-upon federal model.

After the results were confirmed, he made his way to northern Nicosia’s Kizilbas Park, where he was greeted by a crowd of thousands waiting for him to make a victory speech.

“This election is not an election where some people win and others lose. The Turkish Cypriot people won tonight,” he said, before thanking those who had endorsed his campaign, as well as members of the ruling coalition parties, the UBP, the DP, and the YDP, who voted for him – a distinct possibility given his margin of victory.

“There are many wonderful things we can do together. When we are together, there is nothing we cannot do.”

Later in his speech, he promised that he will “never give up on this land” and “never give up on the children of this country”.

“I am proud to be the president of and one of the Turkish Cypriot people. I thank you for walking with me and for granting me this honour,” he said.

Thousands of people at Kizilbas Park

Earlier, as the results were becoming clear, he had given a press conference at his party the CTP’s headquarters in the Arabahmet neighbourhood of Nicosia’s old town.

“I want everyone to know this: there are no losers in this election. The Turkish Cypriot people won together,” he said, before pointing out that he was ahead in each of the north’s six districts, stressing that “this shows us that we are united and our will is united”.

“No district in our country has expressed a different will than this, and our brotherhood has achieved exactly what we promised, exactly what we desired, exactly what would make us the happiest. Our brotherhood has not been broken in any way.”

Erhurman’s election comes at a time of heightened activity on the Cyprus problem, and as such, a busy few weeks await him when he formally takes office.

He promised during the campaign that his first visit upon taking office would be to Ankara to meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other high-level Turkish officials – an important move on light of the fact that many in the highest echelons of Turkish politics have spent the last few weeks actively campaigning against him.

On the island, he is expected to meet new United Nations high representative Khassim Diagne, and later envoy Maria Angela Holguin, ahead of a third enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem of the year, which is expected to take place in New York towards the end of the month.

That meeting, just as the previous two meetings attended by Tatar, will be attended by representatives of Cyprus’ two sides, its three guarantor powers, Greece, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, and the UN.