Nicosia, Cyprus. The north’s ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel on Monday suggested holding a referendum in the first week of May on a four-point judicial reform package. The plan requires a two-thirds majority vote in the Turkish Cypriot legislature for the referendum to proceed.
Legislative vote and opposition support
Ustel will require support from opposition lawmakers for the bill to pass, as his three-party ruling coalition holds 29 of the north’s 49 ‘MPs’. Eighteen of the 20 opposition members belong to the CTP, and the party’s deputy leader Erkut Sahali told the Cyprus Mail that the party had not been informed in advance of plans for a May referendum and has not yet evaluated the matter or decided whether it will offer support.
Judicial reform package presented in December
The four-point plan was presented in December last year by supreme court chief justice Bertan Ozerdag and bar association chief Hasan Esendagli.
Plan includes supreme court expansion and specialised structures
The first point would expand the north’s supreme court from eight judges to 11, with specialised structures to be formed within the 11-member body for its various functions. These would include civil, criminal, and family chambers, the supreme administrative court, and the court’s duties regarding elections and referenda and constitutional matters.
Administrative justice backlog and proposed district courts
The second point focuses on administrative justice, relating to the fairness and legality of decisions made by public bodies. Ozerdag and Esendagli said a backlog of around 800 administrative justice case files has accumulated at the supreme administrative court.
District administrative courts in six districts
To address the backlog, they proposed district administrative courts in the north’s six administrative districts—Famagusta, Kyrenia, Lefka, Morphou, northern Nicosia, and Trikomo—to handle what they described as simpler administrative procedures. Under the proposal, the existing supreme administrative court would act as the appellate body for those appealing decisions from the district administrative courts.
How do you think the proposed district administrative courts could affect the processing of administrative justice cases?
